A DNA test on a Polish woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann ‘conclusively proves’ she is not the missing child, a senior detective has told a court.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell said a sample was taken from Julia Wandelt when she was arrested in February and compared with Madeleine’s.
Asked what the results showed he replied: ‘A comparison took place and it conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.’
Wandelt, 24, is on trial accused of stalking Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry, between June 2022 and February 2025, bombarding them with phone calls, letters and messages after claiming she was their daughter – and even turning up at their home in Rothley, Leics, to demand a DNA test.
Prosecutors say Wandelt carried out a ‘well-planned campaign of harassment’ against the McCanns that lasted almost three years, along with ‘supporter and confidante’ Karen Spragg, 61, who is also on trial, who is said to have ‘adopted and evolved’ her bogus claims ‘with gusto’ from last year onwards.
They both deny the charges.
Detective chief constable Mark Cranwell from Operation Grange, the Met police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine
Julia Wandelt, 24, was informed of the DNA results in April, the court heard today
Karen Spragg, 61, is on trial alongside Wandelt, accused of stalking the McCanns
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Mr Cranwell, a senior investigating officer from Operation Grange, the Metropolitan police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, said by the start of the year, he believed Wandelt’s conducted had ‘reached the threshold for harassment’.
He said he made the decision to take a DNA sample to ‘prove or disprove’ her claims even though it was against ‘procedure’ but was aware of the ‘potential ramifications’.
He said: ‘It weighed heavily on my mind because this was against policy and procedure’.
He said he was also worried Wandelt would not accept the results and ‘would suggest we have tampered with the sample’.
‘There was a possibility she would never accept she isn’t Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.’
He said if it became known police had ordered a DNA comparison, it could also lead to a ‘series of people coming forward saying they are Madeleine’ but added: ‘I believed it was the right thing to do.’
A court sketch of Wandelt and Spragg in the dock at Leicester Crown Court, where they are on trial accused of stalking
Kate and Gerry McCann have both given evidence describing the ‘distress’ Wandelt’s actions have caused them
Asked by Michael Duck KC, prosecuting, what the ‘driving force behind that view was?’ he replied: ‘To get the results to prove that she isn’t Madeleine and inform her of that decision in the hope she may stop her behaviour towards the McCann family’.
Mt Duck said: ‘Do you think that would be achieved?
Mr Cranwell replied: ‘I was skeptical and nervous’.
The court was told the DNA sample would have to be given voluntarily, and Wandelt agreed.
Mr Cranwell said: ‘I was weighing up the best time to take the DNA, I was aware Leicestershire [police] were likely to be arresting her at some point and I made the decision the DNA would be taken on her arrest.’
The sample was taken in February this year after she and Spragg were arrested at Bristol airport.
Asked what the results showed he replied: ‘A comparison took place and it conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.’
Mr Cranwell said he and a colleague then visited Wandelt in Peterborough prison on April 1 this year to tell her the results.
He said he told her: ‘A sample was a taken from you when you were in custody.
‘I went on to say your sample was submitted to the laboratory and a profile was established for you.
‘This has now been compared to the profile of Madeleine McCann, they do not match, you are not Madeleine McCann’.
Mr Cranwell said Wandelt asked him about a test she had taken, which she earlier claimed showed was an almost 70 per cent match to DNA found at the crime scene in Portugal.
Mr Cranwell said he told her: ‘I can’t comment on work done by other people.’
‘She also asked me did you really want to find Madeleine? To which myself and colleague Gary replied ‘yes’.
Last week the court heard Detective Constable Mark Draycott had ruled out Wandelt after studying photos she had sent and comparing them with the missing girl, who had a small blemish called a coloboma of the iris on her right eye.
He added: ‘We were already aware of the condition in Madeleine’s eye.
‘We were able to make that professional opinion relating to that.
‘The experts said it wouldn’t have faded in that time. The medical expertise is that it couldn’t move and couldn’t fade. We had already worked on facial recognition, etcetera, etcetera.’
On Monday, jurors at Leicester Crown Court were played voicemail messages left by Wandelt in which she claimed Madeleine was not dead.
They also heard messages begging Ms McCann for a DNA test, claiming she was a 69.23% genetic match to samples from the ‘crime scene’ contained in the Portuguese police files into Madeleine’s disappearance, which are online.
In one message, she told Ms McCann: ‘You are my mother, it’s science, no one can deny it.’
In another, she said: ‘I am not a scammer, I am your daughter.’
She also explained away differences between her and Madeleine’s appearance by saying she was ‘ugly and fat because of medication I was given’, and claims to remember trying to shout ‘mummy and daddy’ on the night the three-year-old disappeared in Portugal in 2007.
The trial continues.
