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An alleged stalker who asserted to be the missing girl was excluded after a secret DNA test proved conclusively she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Stalking Allegations Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is accused of a campaign of harassment against the relatives of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish national overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to 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 actions towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said over a dozen persons had earlier asserted 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 was revealed in the media I had taken DNA from someone quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had numerous individuals coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about reaching out to the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and difficult for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said authorities had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of dissimilar appearance and that she was two years older than the child. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He declared: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

The court heard that in April this year, the officer met with Wandelt under arrest and told her that her DNA had been tested alongside 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 throughout their discussion, Wandelt inquired: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have interfered with the sample”, stating: “There was a possibility she would not believe she cannot be Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, testimony revealed how the relatives were left terrified and upset by their “unnerving” and “deeply disturbing” 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 pair made “increasingly bizarre plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.

Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. The trial continues.