🔗 Share this article

An alleged stalker who asserted to be the missing girl was eliminated after a confidential DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, authorities disclosed in court.

Targeted Behavior Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, aged 24, is accused of a pattern of threatening behavior against the parents of Madeleine, who vanished from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish citizen bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and visited their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the lead detective on Operation Grange, said he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said over a dozen persons had earlier asserted to be Madeleine McCann 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 worried I would have had numerous individuals coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about reaching out to 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 difficult for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said the police had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of dissimilar appearance and that she was older by two years than the child. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He declared: “A comparison took place. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Jury Hearings

Jurors learned that in April this year, the officer visited Wandelt while detained and stated to her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

The court heard that during their conversation, Wandelt said: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have tampered with the sample”, stating: “There existed a chance she would refuse to acknowledge she cannot be Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

Earlier in the trial, jurors learned how the McCanns were left frightened and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to push for a DNA test.

The court learned how both women made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in 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.