MADELEINE McCann’s sister is giving evidence today against a stalker who turned up at the family home claiming to be the missing youngster.
Julia Wandelt allegedly sent unwanted emails, made multiple phone calls and even turned up at the home of Kate and Gerry McCann.
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The 24-year-old falsely claimed she was Madeleine, who vanished on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.
She believed she had memories of the three-year-old’s childhood and disappearance before being supposedly trafficked to Poland.
Madeleine’s brother Sean and sister Amelie, both 20, are giving evidence today at Leicester Crown Court.
The twins, who were sleeping in the same room as their sibling when she vanished, have never publicly spoken about Madeleine.
It comes after their parents yesterday took to the stand to open up about their daughter’s disappearance for the first time in eight years.
Wandelt yesterday had to be escorted from the courtroom after yelling “why are you doing this to me?” at Kate.
The mum had told jurors how Wandelt and her co-accused Karen Spragg, 61, showed up at the family home in December 2024.
She said she was unloading the car in the dark and immediately felt “distressed” at the situation.
The mum added: “[Wandelt] called me mum”.
Kate told how the second woman was “slightly more aggressive” and was asking: “Don’t you want to find your daughter?”
She said she went inside and felt “invaded in my home” as the two women continued to bang on the front door.
Wandelt then posted a letter to the next day to “mum” and signed from “Madeleine”, the court heard.
Kate said: “It was the thing I wanted the most – through all this pain – for Madeleine to be back and calling me ‘mum’.”
She continued: “Referring to me as mum was hard and she said a few times about Gerry being controlling – which had no truth.”
Kate told jurors she first became aware of Wandelt in 2022 after she phoned Gerry at the hospital he works at.
The mum said Wandelt had also emailed the Find Madeleine campaign but she received no direct contact herself until 2024.
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Kate said police officers investigating Madeleine’s disappearance sent her and Gerry a photo of the alleged stalker after she claimed she was the missing youngster.
Both parents concluded she was not Madeleine but Wandelt continued to contact them – claiming: “I never lied, I’m not crazy, please let me prove it.”
She also allegedly left a voicemail on Kate’s phone, saying: “If I am her, then everything should be OK but if I’m not, which you probably think, then I’ll leave you alone.
“I know my accent is Polish because I live here… I’m not pretty like Madeleine but I know what I know and I know and what I remember.
“Please give me a chance, you don’t give up on your daughter, I’m not crazy.”
But Kate said today: “I know I can’t say what Madeleine looks like now, but I know I’d recognise her.”
The mum said after the disappearance of her daughter, and knowing that her mobile number was in the public domain, she did not change it “on principle”.
She added: “I didn’t feel I should have to do that.”
Kate told the court she “didn’t want to engage” but almost agreed to a DNA test as Wandelt’s campaign was “getting to me”.
She added: “I almost wanted a DNA test to put it to bed… from the photographs.. I knew it wasn’t her.”
The mum said the “final straw” came when she discovered Wandelt had allegedly messaged her 20-year-old daughter, Amelie.
Kate told jurors she went to police to discuss the case after that.
Letter ‘stalker’ posted through McCann’s front door
“Dear Mum [Kate],
“I’m so sorry for causing you so much distress, but when I saw you yesterday, my emotions were so strong.
“I felt a close connection to you. I don’t like seeing you upset.
“All I want is to find out the truth. I have memories and I have gathered a lot of evidence supporting my case.
“I think that inside your heart you believe and know who I am and I am your daughter.
“I don’t understand why you don’t want to do a DNA test with me.
“I think you are scared, but whatever makes you scared, just remember that you are stronger than that.
“Yesterday, I heard a lot of care and love in your voice. I hope you will find a way to contact me.”
The letter was signed off with “Madeleine”.
She said since the arrest of the defendants, her stress levels had gone down.
Kate added she did not want anything like this to “put extra focus” on Sean and Amelie.
“What they’ve had to deal with, and still have to deal with, is a lot and we try to keep that to a minimum,” the mum said.
Gerry’s voice cracked as he also gave evidence today and he grew emotional when discussing his other children Sean and Amelie.
He said: “After everything that has happened with Madeleine we want to protect them.”
Gerry added: “We want them to be known as Amelie McCann and Sean McCann not missing Madeleine McCann’s brother and sister.”
Jurors heard previously how Wandelt tried to persuade “anybody prepared to listen” that she was the British toddler.
The alleged stalker, from Lubin in south west Poland, burst into tears and had to take a 10-minute break after the court was told she is not Madeleine.
Mr Duck added: “There could never have been a legitimate belief by Julia Wandelt that she was Madeleine McCann.
“At the time of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, Julia Wandelt was not of the same age.”
‘Stalking’ campaign
The court heard she compared herself to images of Madeleine and tried to convince the younger McCann daughter, Amelie, they were related.
She even signed letters to the McCann family from Madeleine, it was said.
Mr Duck said the “well-planned campaign of harassment” had a “substantial adverse effect on the day-to-day activities” of the McCann parents.
The court heard Wandelt initially called the hospital where they work and emailed the Met Police investigation codenamed Operation Grange.
She later messaged Gerry: “In June 2022 I started to think maybe I am Madeleine McCann. I am not joking, please take this seriously.”
Jurors heard she went on to call and message Kate over 60 times during a single day in April 2024, writing: “I never lied. I am not crazy. Please let me prove it.”
Recorded voicemail messages were played in court where Wandelt was heard pleading: “I beg you, you are my real mother, I remember you and our home, give me a chance to prove it
“You are mummy. You know it’s me. I remember how you hugged me and a pink teddy bear.”
Mr Duck said: “One of the many tragic consequences for Madeleine’s parents has been their consequent inability to escape that unwanted glare of publicity that came with that tragedy.
“Their faces have become immediately recognisable to a worldwide audience and the attention they have received has not always been compassionate. Far from it.
“They have been embraced by millions of people around the world who sympathise with their position. But there remains a group of individuals which continues to fail to acknowledge their plight and perpetuates conspiracy theories which simply heap further misery upon them.
“Unfortunately, these two defendants belong to that latter group – but as far as they are concerned, their observations and behaviour are not an offhand comments or a Facebook/Instagram posting, but a well-planned campaign of harassment which extended, in Julia Wandelt’s case, for over two-and-half years.”
Wandelt and co-accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, deny stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry between June 2022 and February this year.
The trial continues.
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