A Polish woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann has been found guilty of harassing the missing toddler’s bereaved family. Julia Wandelt was described as extremely manipulative after she “tormented” the girl’s parents during a “cruel” campaign.
However, she has been found not guilty of stalking after the jury deliberated for more than seven hours.
The jury unanimously decided Wandelt was not guilty of stalking, but guilty of harassment and Karen Spragg was found not guilty of stalking or harassment.
Wandelt and Spragg were seen holding hands in the dock before the verdicts were handed down.
The Polish national gasped at the verdicts, while Spragg was seen in tears.
(Image: METROPOLITAN POLICE/AFP via Gett)
Trial judge Mrs Justice Cutts told Leicester Crown Court that the maximum sentence for harassment was six months’ imprisonment.
The judge said: “I think it also is a fact that Julia Wandelt has been in custody since her arrest in February of this year.
“So she will have been in custody in fact for longer than the maximum sentence.”
Earlier in the trial, the court heard it is “blindingly obvious” that the 24-year-old is not Madeleine, who disappeared aged three during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007. But Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, peddled the myth, while harassing Kate and Gerry McCann by sending emails, leaving voicemails, and turning up at their home.
In his closing speech to jurors on Monday, Crown counsel Michael Duck KC accused Wandelt and co-defendant Karen Spragg of trying to “impose their will” on the McCann family despite knowing that their actions in relation to the couple were wrong.
Mr Duck said, adding: “This case is about Julia Wandelt and Karen Spragg individually and subsequently as a team causing very significant distress to Kate and Gerry McCann.”
(Image: PA)
Accusing the defendants of “tormenting the McCanns over a period of time” which included a visit to their family home in December last year, Mr Duck said comments made by the defendants outside the property had demonstrated that Spragg “was not just a hanger-on but an enthusiastic encourager of what was taking place”.
Mr Duck continued: “What that brief passage (a transcript of comments made outside the house) does demonstrate is the reality in this case – it demonstrates that these two defendants simply wanted to impose their will on the McCanns.
“They cared only about their own agenda. They knew what they were doing was wrong.”
Commenting on an assertion made by Wandelt that she did not believe distress had been caused, Mr Duck said: “She has to say that because that’s part of the very charge that she and Karen Spragg face.”
(Image: PA)
Wandelt told the court last week that she “didn’t care any more” when it was put to her that there was no scientific evidence to connect her to the McCanns.
She added: “If people here say I’m not, you know what, I’m OK with it. I’m just exhausted with it.
“I want to know who I am. If I’m not, I’m not. It’s fine. I’m exhausted. I do believe I’m her. I do remember them but I’m exhausted, I’m completely exhausted with all of this. If that is the conclusion, then I am willing to say I agree with this. But I am exhausted.”
Spragg opted not to give evidence. Trial judge Mrs Justice Cutts gave the jury legal directions on Monday, instructing them to put aside feelings of sympathy they may have for the McCanns or the defendants, or for both.
“Emotion of any kind does not assist in deciding whether the allegation against each defendant is satisfactorily proved,” she said.
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