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An alleged stalker who claimed to be Madeleine McCann was excluded after a confidential DNA test established beyond doubt she was not the long-lost child, authorities disclosed in court.

Targeted Behavior Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, faces charges for a pattern of threatening behavior against the relatives of Madeleine, who vanished from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish national flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and appeared at their home insisting on a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Investigation Details

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Madeleine's disappearance, stated he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said over a dozen persons had in the past insisted to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.

“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from a person most likely not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about contacting the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been very traumatic and difficult for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to a lack of resemblance and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after learning Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on stalking charges, he “decided that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He declared: “Testing was conducted. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

The court heard that in April this year, the officer saw Wandelt under arrest and stated to her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Testimony indicated that while they spoke, Wandelt said: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have manipulated the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would not believe she cannot be Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, the court heard how the relatives were left frightened and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to push for a DNA test.

The court learned how the pair made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that the family visited.

Both defendants both contest one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.