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A suspected stalker who asserted to be Madeleine McCann was eliminated after a secret DNA test established beyond doubt she was not the missing girl, authorities disclosed in court.

Targeted Behavior Towards McCann Family

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

The woman from Poland bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and visited their home demanding a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Police Testimony

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Madeleine's disappearance, said he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had previously claimed to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it was revealed in the media I had taken DNA from someone 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 contacting the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have raised their hopes. It could have been very traumatic and difficult for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said the police had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of dissimilar appearance and that she was two years older than Madeleine. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on stalking charges, he “determined that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He said: “Analysis occurred. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Jurors learned that in April this year, the officer met with Wandelt in custody and informed her that her DNA had been matched against 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 while they spoke, Wandelt said: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have manipulated the sample”, remarking: “There existed a chance she would not believe she cannot be Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the family were left scared and distressed by their “unnerving” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to insist on a DNA test.

Jurors heard how both women made progressively odd plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the family visited.

Wandelt and Spragg both refute one count of stalking. The case remains active.