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An alleged stalker who insisted to be Madeleine McCann was excluded after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the long-lost child, authorities disclosed in court.

Harassment Campaign Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, faces charges for a campaign of harassment against the family of Madeleine, who vanished from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish national bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and visited their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on the missing person’s case, stated he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said thirteen individuals had earlier asserted to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA from a person quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess major concerns about approaching the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have raised their hopes. It could have been highly distressing and hard for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said investigators had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of a lack of resemblance and that she was two years older than the missing girl. But, he said, after learning Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He declared: “A comparison took place. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, Cranwell visited Wandelt in custody and informed her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that during their conversation, Wandelt inquired: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have interfered with the sample”, stating: “There existed a chance she would never accept she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the family were left terrified and upset by their “disturbing” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The court learned how the defendants made “increasingly bizarre plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that they had eaten in.

The accused women both contest one count of stalking. The case remains active.