‘Fake Maddie’ jurors ‘urged to acquit’ Polish girl accused of stalking Madeleine McCann’s dad and mom
Polish woman, Julia Wandelt allegedly ‘peddled the myth’ that she was Madeleine McCann and is accused of stalking the missing youngster’s family in a relentless and ‘cruel’ campaign
Jurors have been encouraged to clear a Polish woman accused of stalking Madeleine McCann‘s parents, with her barrister arguing that she was confused about her parental background. A court heard Julia Wandelt only approached the couple when she was “at the end of her tether.”
Tom Price KC defending said jurors heard Wandelt mistakenly believed she was Madeleine, adding that she behaved courteously and showed protective behaviour towards Kate McCann when she visited her Leicestershire home in December last year. Wandelt, 24, from Lubin in Poland, is currently on trial alongside co-defendant Karen Spragg at Leicester Crown Court.
Both women deny participating in a “cruel and unforgiving” campaign of stalking, causing serious alarm or distress to Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry McCann. Prosecutors claim Wandelt perpetuated the myth that she is Madeleine, who vanished aged three in Portugal in 2007, while stalking Mr and Mrs McCann by sending emails, leaving voicemails and appearing at their home between June 2022 and February this year.
In his closing remarks to the jury on Tuesday (November 4), Mr Price portrayed Wandelt as a “rather sad and pathetic young woman” who gained nothing from attempting to contact the McCanns while requesting a DNA test.
Mr Price posed a question regarding the trial: “There is one real question that we have to ask about this case – if Julia Wandelt is stalking the McCanns, what is the benefit to her? What has she gained from this?”
Arguing that the prosecution had failed to address what was fundamentally an impossible question to answer, Mr Price continued: “If the Crown theory is correct, it is that she knew from the very beginning that she is not Madeleine McCann.
“If that theory is correct, what on earth has she been doing for the past three years?”
Encouraging the jury to contemplate whether Wandelt’s assertion that she was Madeleine represented a sincere conviction, Mr Price went on: “The answer must be that she wanted answers to the complex questions that may arise from her rather unfortunate background.”
The court heard that Wandelt had reached out to the McCanns as “the last thing she could do”, having previously contacted the active police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance and 22 other organisations, including police in Portugal and the UK and a Polish missing persons group.
Mr Price stated: “This was a woman who was at the end of her tether when she finally had any actual contact with the McCanns in December.”
Wandelt had issued no violent threats and displayed no ill will towards the McCanns, Mr Price also argued.
Describing how the Polish woman had acted protectively towards Mrs McCann during a confrontation on her driveway, Mr Price declared: “This is not wicked behaviour – this is confused behaviour.
“This is the behaviour, we would submit, of a rather sad and pathetic young woman. You would have to have a heart of stone, members of the jury, not to feel some sympathy and compassion for that young woman.”
In order to find Wandelt guilty, Mr Price stated, the jury would need to be absolutely certain that she had caused serious alarm or distress, while Mrs McCann had merely described his client as an irritant.
“It’s not enough to say she was irritating, annoying or overbearing in this case. We say you can’t be so satisfied and you should find her not guilty,” Mr Price argued.
Simon Russell Flint KC, defending Spragg, suggested that Wandelt was on an “increasingly desperate quest” to discover and establish her identity.
He claimed Spragg’s “sole purpose” had been to determine whether Wandelt “might be the missing Madeleine”.
“Karen Spragg became a true friend to Julia Wandelt,” Mr Russell Flint said. “She almost suffered with her. She supported her, she believed in her. She wanted to help her find her true identity.”
Following Wandelt’s arrest in February this year, a DNA comparison was finally conducted by the police, the court has heard.
Mr Russell Flint commented on the test, which showed no connection between Wandelt and the McCanns: “Until they did that very simple, inexpensive, non-invasive exercise, nobody could stand up and say with complete certainty that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”
Wandelt and Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny one count of stalking.
The trial continues.
