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An accused stalker who claimed to be the missing girl was excluded after a covert DNA test proved conclusively she was not the missing girl, authorities disclosed in court.

Stalking Allegations Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is alleged to have conducted a stalking campaign against the family of Madeleine, who went missing from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The woman from Poland flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and appeared at their home demanding a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Investigation Details

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Madeleine's disappearance, said he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said thirteen individuals 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 became known in the media I had taken DNA from a person probably not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about contacting the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have raised their hopes. It could have been highly distressing and hard for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of dissimilar appearance and that she was older by two years than the child. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He declared: “A comparison took place. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

Jurors learned that in April this year, the officer saw Wandelt under arrest and stated to her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the profiles did not match. Jurors were told he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

The court heard that throughout their discussion, Wandelt asked: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have interfered with the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would not believe she isn't Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

During previous hearings, the court heard how the family were left scared and distressed by their “creepy” and “deeply disturbing” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The jury were told how both women made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the family visited.

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