Secret DNA Examination Confirmed Alleged Stalker Could Not Be Madeleine McCann, States Officer

A suspected stalker who insisted to be the missing girl was excluded after a covert DNA test proved conclusively she was not the missing girl, authorities disclosed in court.

Harassment Campaign Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the relatives of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The woman from Poland overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and turned up at their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the lead detective on Madeleine's disappearance, explained he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said thirteen individuals had in the past insisted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.

“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from someone most likely not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had numerous individuals coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about approaching the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have raised their hopes. It could have been very traumatic and difficult for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said authorities had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to dissimilar appearance and that she was two years older than Madeleine. But, he said, after learning Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on stalking charges, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He said: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, the detective met with Wandelt while detained and told her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Testimony indicated that while they spoke, Wandelt asked: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have interfered with the sample”, adding: “It was possible she would never accept she cannot be Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the family were left frightened and upset by their “disturbing” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to push for a DNA test.

Jurors heard how the pair made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the family visited.

Wandelt and Spragg both deny one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.