Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann found guilty of harassing missing girl’s parents

Madeleine McCann.

A Polish woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann has been found guilty of harassing the missing girl’s parents by turning up at their home and sending sinister letters and messages repeatedly begging for a DNA test.

Julia Wandelt, 24, put her hands to her face when jurors returned a guilty verdict for the harassment of Kate and Gerry McCann on Friday, but a not guilty verdict for a charge of stalking.

A five-week trial at Leicester Crown Court heard Wandelt claimed to have memories, induced by hypnosis sessions, of being abducted and of living with the McCanns as a child, including feeding Madeleine’s younger brother Sean and playing ring-a-ring-a-roses.

Jurors heard that Wandelt, who had an emotional outburst while Mrs McCann gave evidence against her, tried to persuade “anybody prepared to listen” that she was Madeleine, and that she had been kidnapped from Portugal and abused with other girls in Poland.

Julia Wandelt was found guilty of harassment at Leicester Crown Court on Friday. Picture: Elizabeth Cook/PA

Wandelt called and messaged Mrs McCann more than 60 times in one day on April 13 last year, claiming to have a memory of the mother stroking her head and saying she would find her before the abduction.

Her co-defendant, Karen Spragg, was found not guilty of stalking and harassment.

Sentencing judge Mrs Justice Cutts told Wandelt her “pestering” and “badgering” of the McCanns was “unwarranted” and “unkind”.

She told the defendant: “They (the McCanns) were entitled to refuse to engage with you, particularly in the sad circumstances in which they live with the disappearance of Madeleine.

“They have suffered from that disappearance of their young child for many years, they are entitled to their privacy and to get on with their lives in the best way they can and to decide with whom and with whom not they will engage.

“Your constant pestering, badgering and eventually attendance at their home address on a dark evening in December was unwarranted, unkind, and as the jury have now found, criminal.” 

Wandelt, who sat beside Spragg in the dock, gasped at the verdicts, while Spragg cried.

Wandelt and Spragg held hands in the dock before the verdicts were handed down, after the jury deliberated for more than seven hours.

Before the judge reconvened court to discuss her sentence, Wandelt appeared to be sobbing in a room behind the dock.

The judge told her barrister she would “need to compose herself” for sentence, but she was satisfied Wandelt did not need to be present while representations were made.

Prosecution counsel Michael Duck KC said a restraining order was sought against Wandelt because there had been “plain harassment” against the McCann family.

Sentencing Wandelt as she eventually made her way back into the dock, Mrs Justice Cutts said it was not for her to decide whether she would be released.

She said: “It’s not for me to say that you could be released at this point, notwithstanding that you have served your sentence.

“A notice of deportation has been served on you and it’s a matter for the secretary of state as to how things proceed.” 

Mr and Mrs McCann were confronted by Wandelt on their driveway last December, where they were begged for a DNA test.

Emotional evidence

Both Madeleine’s parents gave evidence during the trial, from behind a curtain shielding them from Wandelt.

During their emotional evidence, Mr McCann said he and his wife still cling on to hope that Madeleine may be alive today.

He also claimed Wandelt’s actions were hampering the ongoing inquiry into his daughter’s disappearance, while Mrs McCann said she had been distressed by Wandelt’s behaviour, particularly a letter sent by the defendant addressing her as “mum”.

In recordings of the interaction outside their home, Mrs McCann can be heard saying: “You’re causing us a lot of distress.” The following day, the couple received a sinister letter addressed “Dear Mum (Kate)” and signed “Lots of love, Madeleine”.

Wandelt referred to Mrs McCann as “mummy” and said “you are my real mother” in other messages sent to her phone.

She told the jury during her evidence that she persistently contacted Mr and Mrs McCann because she thought they were being “misled” by the police and she wanted a DNA test to prove her relationship to them.

Wandelt also told jurors she believes Mr McCann was involved in Madeleine’s disappearance and that Mrs McCann knew of the abduction, but they “had no other choice”.

The defendant also suggested that the ongoing police investigation into the girl’s disappearance called Operation Grange, which has received more than £13m (€14.8m) in funding, involves money laundering.

Forensic expert Rosalyn Hammond told jurors “Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann” because their DNA profiles do not match.

Wandelt’s DNA sample was taken by police after she was arrested at Bristol Airport in February, which was against the investigation’s policy, in an attempt to “stop her behaviour” towards the McCanns.

Her profile was compared with a sample recovered from Madeleine’s embroidered pillowcase at the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, days after she disappeared and a blood sample taken when she was born.

Asked in court whether she still thought she was Madeleine, Wandelt said she was “50/50” and added she would like to see the full paperwork proving they are different people.

The following day in the witness box, Wandelt said: “I do believe I’m her. I do remember them but I’m exhausted, I’m completely exhausted with all of this.” Wandelt told the trial she could not remember early parts of her childhood, and after looking into missing persons cases she realised she had a similar mark in her eye to Madeleine.

Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance during a holiday at a resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal, remains unsolved.