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A suspected stalker who asserted to be the abducted child was excluded after a confidential DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the long-lost child, investigators stated in court.

Harassment Campaign Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, aged 24, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the family of Madeleine, who went missing from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish national flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and appeared at their home insisting on a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Official Statements

Testifying on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Operation Grange, said he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said over a dozen persons had in the past insisted to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.

“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from someone most likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about reaching out to the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been very traumatic and hard for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said authorities had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of no physical similarity and that she was older by two years than the missing girl. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

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

Jury Hearings

Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the detective met with Wandelt under arrest and told her that her DNA had been compared to 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 said: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have tampered with the sample”, remarking: “There existed a chance she would refuse to acknowledge she isn't Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

Earlier in the trial, jurors learned how the McCanns were left frightened and distressed by their “creepy” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The court learned how both women made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that they had eaten in.

Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. The trial continues.