A suspected stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was eliminated after a confidential DNA test established beyond doubt she was not the long-lost child, authorities disclosed in court.
Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a campaign of harassment against the family of Madeleine, who vanished from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.
The Polish citizen overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and turned up at their home insisting on a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.
Testifying on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Operation Grange, stated he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.
DCI Mark Cramwell said thirteen individuals had previously claimed to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.
“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from a person probably 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 reaching out to the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and challenging for the family.”
He said the police had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of dissimilar appearance and that she was older by two years than the child. But, he said, after learning Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.
He declared: “A comparison took place. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”
Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the detective saw Wandelt under arrest and informed her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the profiles did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”
The court heard that throughout their discussion, Wandelt inquired: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he answered: “Yes.”
He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have tampered with the sample”, remarking: “There existed a chance she would not believe she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”
In prior court sessions, the court heard how the relatives were left frightened and upset by their “creepy” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to push for a DNA test.
The jury were told how the pair made ever more strange plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the family visited.
Both defendants both deny one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.
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