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A suspected stalker who claimed to be the abducted child was excluded after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, authorities disclosed in court.

Stalking Allegations Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, aged 24, is alleged to have conducted a stalking campaign against the parents of Madeleine, who disappeared from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish citizen bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and turned up at their home requesting a DNA test, the court was earlier informed.

Official Statements

Testifying on Tuesday, the lead detective on Operation Grange, said he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said 13 people had earlier asserted 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 was revealed in the media I had taken DNA off an individual most likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess major concerns about contacting the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been very traumatic and difficult for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said investigators had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of a lack of resemblance and that she was not the same age than the missing girl. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on stalking charges, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He declared: “Analysis occurred. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the detective saw Wandelt under arrest and stated to her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

The court heard that while they spoke, Wandelt inquired: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have tampered with the sample”, adding: “There existed a chance she would never accept she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

During previous hearings, the court heard how the family were left scared and upset by their “creepy” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to push for a DNA test.

The court learned how both women 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.

The accused women both refute one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.