‘She’s not Madeleine McCann: ‘Polish Maddie’ breaks down in tears as she goes on trial accused of stalking Gerry and Kate
A Polish woman who claimed to be missing Madeleine McCann broke down in tears as a court was told she is not the missing child.
Julia Wandelt, 24, went on trial on Monday accused of stalking Madeleine’s parents. She appeared at Leicester Crown Court alongside Karen Spragg, 61, of Caerau in Cardiff.
The two women are accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann causing them ‘serious alarm or distress’ between June 1 2022 and 21st February 2025.
Wandelt is in custody, Spragg is on conditional bail.
The court heard that from June 2022 Wandelt ‘began to make attempts to persuade anybody who was prepared to listen that she was Madeleine McCann‘.
Prosecutor Micheal Duck KC said Wandelt, for a period of three years, ‘pursued the myth she was Madeleine McCann’ and pursued Kate and Gerry by ‘electronic communication, direct telephone calls, visits to their village and ultimately visits to their home address’.
Mr Duck told the jury: ‘Her connection over the almost three years which followed was that she must have been abducted and taken to Poland where she lived with people who erroneously claimed to be her natural birth parents’.
She also claimed to have memories ‘of the manner of her abduction’ and of being Madeleine.
Mr Duck said those memories included on occasions reporting to remember growing up in the McCann household and interacting with Madeleine’s younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie.
He said she also remembered ‘being part of family events and very specific family events’.
‘One might be tempted to think that this has some measure of credibility but can we, at this very early stage in this trail, make this clear: Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.’
At this point Wandelt broke down in tears and asked to leave the dock.
The trial continues.
She is accused of turning up at Gerry and Kate McCann’s Leicestershire home with co-accused Julia Wandelt (pictured), 23, a Polish woman who has claimed to be the couple’s missing daughter Madeleine
Madeleine McCann’s (pictured) disappearance while on a family holiday in Portugal’s Algarve at the age of three in 2007 is one of the most widely reported missing child cases in history and remains unsolved
Karen Spragg, 60, pictured arriving at Leicester Magistrates Court earlier this year
It is alleged she made unwanted contact with the McCanns, turned up at their address and sent letters, calls, voicemails and WhatsApp messages, which amounted to stalking. Pictured: Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann
Madeleine McCann’s disappearance while on a family holiday in Portugal’s Algarve at the age of three in 2007 is one of the most widely reported missing child cases in history and remains unsolved.
