Julia Wandelt, 24, from Poland, has no familial link to the McCanns despite her claiming to have memories of Madeleine’s childhood and disappearance, a court heard
A stalking trial has been told at a “very early stage” that one of the accused “is not Madeleine McCann”.
Jurors heard there was “unequivocal scientific evidence” that Julia Wandelt, 24, from Lubin in south-west Poland, has no familial link to the McCanns despite her claiming to have memories of the girl’s childhood and disappearance. Leicester Crown Court heard that Wandelt and Karen Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.
Wandelt started audibly crying and went to the back of the dock when prosecutor Michael Duck KC said on Monday: “Can we at this very early stage in the trial make this position clear – that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”
She returned to the dock beside Spragg after a 10-minute break to listen to the rest of hearing. Opening the Crown’s case, Mr Duck told the jury of five men and seven women that from June 2022, Wandelt began attempting to persuade “anybody prepared to listen” that she was Madeleine.
He said: “Her contention over the two and a half years that followed was therefore that she must have been abducted and taken to Poland where she lived with people who she was erroneously told were her parents.
“You will see and hear occasions upon which she claims to have evolving memories of what actually happened in May 2007. She pursued claims that she was Madeleine McCann and she pursued Madeleine McCann’s parents over a period of time and pursued that myth.
“Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3 2007. You know she disappeared from an apartment in Praia da Luz on the coast of Portugal. Her disappearance generated worldwide media attention. She was nine days short of her fourth birthday.
“One of many tragic consequences for Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, has been their constant inability to escape the glare of publicity that came with that tragedy. The attention they have received has not always been compassionate, sometimes far from it.
“There remains a group of individuals who continue to fail to acknowledge their plight and perpetuate conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, these two defendants belong to that latter group. You will hear unequivocal scientific evidence in this case that Madeleine McCann is the natural daughter of Kate and Gerry McCann. Julia Wandelt has no familial link to them.”
The prosecutor said Wandelt has claimed to have memories of being part of the McCann family and remembers growing up with Madeleine’s younger siblings. Mr Duck added: “Nothing gives you the right to pursue and stalk people just because you want them to bend to your will and do as you demand or request.
“There could never have been a legitimate belief by Julia Wandelt that she was Madeleine McCann. At the time of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, Julia Wandelt was not of the same age. She obtained numerous images of Madeleine McCann but also other images of the McCann family and sought to compare them to images of herself.”
The court heard that Wandelt sent images to Madeleine’s younger sister to “persuade” her that they “were somehow related”. Madeleine’s disappearance during a family holiday at the age of three in Portugal’s Algarve in 2007 remains unsolved. The trial continues.