Woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann 'stalked' parents: UK court

LONDON (AFP) — A Polish woman who claimed to be British toddler Madeleine McCann, missing since 2007, went on trial Monday accused of stalking her parents and bombarding them with emails and calls.

Julia Wandelt, 24, on trial in Leicester Crown Court in central England, denied charges of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February 2025.

Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff in Wales, is also on trial on the same charge, which she has also denied.

The McCann parents, both doctors, have been in the international limelight since 3-year-old Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007, from the apartment in the Praia da Luz seaside resort where the family was holidaying.

Prosecutors said there was “unequivocal scientific evidence” that Wandelt, who has claimed to have memories of Madeleine’s childhood and disappearance, did not have any familial link to the McCanns.

“Can we at this very early stage in the trial make this position clear — that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann,” prosecutor Michael Duck told the court at the start of the trial.

The prosecutor pointed out that at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, Wandelt was not the same age as her.

Duck said that starting in June 2022 Wandelt tried to convince “anybody prepared to listen” that she was the missing child, arguing she was kidnapped and taken to Poland.

She is accused of showing up at the McCanns’ home address.

The 24-year-old also sent “altered” images to Madeleine’s younger sister to “persuade” her that they were related, the court heard.

“One of many tragic consequences for Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, has been their constant inability to escape the glare of publicity that came with that tragedy,” Duck said. “There remains a group of individuals who continue to fail to acknowledge their plight and perpetuate conspiracy theories.”

The unsolved case, which has generated huge international and media interest, was thrust back into the spotlight last month after the top suspect in the disappearance was released from a German prison.

Christian Brueckner — who had finished a seven-year jail term for raping a 72-year-old American woman — was not charged in the McCann case because of a lack of evidence.

In June, police combed an overgrown area and abandoned buildings in Portugal near where Brueckner lived at the time, but have yet to announce that they found any evidence.

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By Agence France-Presse