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

Harassment Campaign Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a campaign of harassment against the family of Madeleine, who went missing from Praia da Luz 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 visited their home insisting on a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the chief investigator on the missing person’s case, explained he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said 13 people had in the past insisted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA off an individual quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold 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 quite emotionally damaging and difficult for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said authorities had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of a lack of resemblance and that she was not the same age than the missing girl. But, he said, after learning Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He stated: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

Jurors learned that in April this year, the detective visited Wandelt under arrest and informed 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.”

Testimony indicated that during their conversation, Wandelt asked: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have manipulated the sample”, remarking: “There was a possibility she would refuse to acknowledge she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

Earlier in the trial, jurors learned how the McCanns were left terrified and upset by their “unnerving” and “deeply disturbing” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to push for a DNA test.

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

The accused women both contest one count of stalking. The case remains active.