Woman accused of stalking Madeleine McCann's family 'had to be convinced she was not three missing girls'

Jurors at Leicester Crown Court in England were told that Julia Wandelt, 24, 'returned with a new story' weeks after being told by a charity she was not a child who disappeared in Germany

Julia Wandelt is on trial accused of stalking the McCanns. Picture: Elizabeth Cook/PA

A Polish woman accused of stalking the family of Madeleine McCann had to be convinced by a missing person charity that she was not three different girls who have disappeared, a court has heard.

Jurors at Leicester Crown Court in England were told that Julia Wandelt, 24, “returned with a new story” weeks after being told by the charity, which is based in Poland, that she was not a child who disappeared in Germany.

Iwona Modliborska, who helped to set up the charity a decade ago, gave evidence via video-link assisted by a Polish interpreter on Tuesday and told the court Wandelt began sending messages to the organisation’s Facebook pages in January or February 2023.

Wandelt listened in the dock beside her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, while Ms Modliborska told the court it was “not easy” to convince Wandelt she was not Madeleine.

It is alleged that Wandelt peddled the myth she was the three-year-old, who went missing during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007, while stalking Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.

Madeleine McCann.

Speaking about the first contact from Wandelt, Ms Modliborska said: “She wanted to find out about DNA tests, how it worked and how much it would cost.

“For some time she drew comparisons between herself and another girl from Germany, Inga Gehricke.

“She was asking if she could be that girl and as far as we were concerned we were asking her why she thought she might be that girl.

“Her biological parents did not want to give her access to her birth certificate and she claimed that when she asked questions about her early childhood she did not get any answers from them.”

Ms Modliborska told the court she did not believe Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, was Inga, adding: “We quickly made her stop believing in this because something did not agree with the description.

“It didn’t take long because very quickly we convinced her that she was wrong. Within weeks she returned with a new story — with Acacia Bishop.

“A few weeks later she wrote about Acacia Bishop to us. She sent photographs of herself and Acacia Bishop to compare.

“There were no similarities and there were no marks specifically that could really indicate it was her.”

The court heard that Acacia was kidnapped in 2003.

Ms Modliborska told the court Wandelt “1,000% could not be” Acacia, and the defendant “very quickly gave up” on her claim to be her

She added: “That was the end of the conversation.”

Karen Spragg is charged with one count of stalking (Joe Giddens/PA)

The witness told the jury that Wandelt then started messaging the charity claiming to be Madeleine with comparisons of their eyes and faces.

Ms Modliborska said the defendant told her that she thought she might have been kidnapped.

She told the court: “Julia was told that she was a quiet girl and did not speak a lot… It was difficult to tell if she could speak Polish.”

The witness added: “I knew she was not similar to Madeleine. I tried to convince her again but she was well-prepared and it was not easy.

“I knew from the very start that it was rubbish. I tried to make her be aware that she was wrong. She did not accept that.”

Wandelt and Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny one count of stalking.