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An accused stalker who insisted to be the missing girl was eliminated after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the missing girl, authorities disclosed in court.

Targeted Behavior Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, faces charges for a campaign of harassment against the relatives of Madeleine, who vanished from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.

The Polish citizen overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and visited their home requesting a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Official Statements

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, stated he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said 13 people had previously claimed 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 worried I would have had a lot of people 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 given them false hope. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and difficult for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said authorities had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of a lack of resemblance and that she was not the same age than the child. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

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

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, the detective saw Wandelt while detained and stated to her that her DNA had been compared to 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 while they spoke, Wandelt asked: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have tampered with the sample”, stating: “There was a possibility she would never accept she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Family Impact

In prior court sessions, testimony revealed how the family were left terrified and upset by their “disturbing” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to demand 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 family visited.

The accused women both contest one count of stalking. The trial continues.