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An accused stalker who claimed to be Madeleine McCann was eliminated after a confidential DNA test proved conclusively she was not the long-lost child, police have revealed in court.

Harassment Campaign Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of a campaign of harassment 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 older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and visited their home insisting on a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Investigation Details

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Madeleine's disappearance, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had in the past insisted to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.

“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from someone quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess major concerns about contacting the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been highly distressing and difficult for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said the police had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of a lack of resemblance and that she was not the same age than the child. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on stalking charges, he “determined that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

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

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, the officer saw Wandelt in custody and stated to her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

The court heard that throughout their discussion, Wandelt said: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have interfered with the sample”, remarking: “There existed a chance she would not believe she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

Earlier in the trial, testimony revealed how the relatives were left frightened and distressed by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The jury were told how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.

Wandelt and Spragg both contest one count of stalking. The trial continues.