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An alleged stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was ruled out after a secret DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Harassment Campaign Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, aged 24, is alleged to have conducted a pattern of threatening behavior against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish national overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and appeared at their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Investigation Details

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Operation Grange, said he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said over a dozen persons had in the past insisted to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA from someone most likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had numerous individuals coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about approaching the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been highly distressing and challenging for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said the police had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of no physical similarity and that she was not the same age than the child. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He declared: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the officer saw Wandelt while detained and stated to her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Testimony indicated that during their conversation, Wandelt inquired: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have manipulated the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would never accept she cannot be Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

Earlier in the trial, the court heard how the McCanns were left scared and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to push for a DNA test.

Jurors heard how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that they had eaten in.

The accused women both refute one count of stalking. The case remains active.