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An alleged stalker who claimed to be the abducted child was ruled out after a secret DNA test established beyond doubt she was not Madeleine McCann, police have revealed in court.

Harassment Campaign Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a pattern of threatening behavior against the family of Madeleine, who vanished from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.

The woman from Poland overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and appeared at their home requesting a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Official Statements

Testifying on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, said he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said over a dozen persons had earlier asserted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA from someone most likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess major concerns about approaching 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 challenging for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said the police had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to dissimilar appearance and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

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

Legal Testimony

Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the detective met with Wandelt in custody and stated to her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. Jurors were told he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that during their conversation, Wandelt said: “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 “might claim we have interfered with the sample”, stating: “It was possible she would never accept she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Family Impact

Earlier in the trial, jurors learned how the McCanns were left terrified and upset by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to demand a DNA test.

The court learned how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that they had eaten in.

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