A Polish woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann was today found guilty of harassing the missing girl’s parents.
Julia Wandelt, 24, let out an audible gasp as the jury returned verdicts on Friday. She was found not guilty of stalking.
Her friend and ‘supporter’ Karen Spragg, 61, a care worker, was cleared of stalking following a five-week trial at Leicester Crown Court and burst into tears as the verdicts were delivered.
The two women were seen holding hands and giggling before the verdicts were read out.
The judge Mrs Justice Cutts said the maximum sentence for harassment was six months and Wandelt had already been in custody for longer. She was arrested in February.
Wandelt was accused of stalking the McCanns for almost three years, calling, sending messages, leaving voicemails and turning up at their home demanding a DNA test after claiming to be their missing daughter.
Her barrister claimed she was ‘vulnerable’ and her behaviour was that of a ‘rather sad and pathetic young woman’ acting out of ‘desperation’ because she believed her parents had lied about who she was.
While Spragg’s defence team argued she was simply trying to detect a crime – that of Madeleine’s abduction – when she took Wandelt to the McCann’s home and shouted at Kate.
Before Mrs Justice Cutts reconvened court to discuss her sentence, Wandelt appeared to be sobbing in a room behind the dock.
The judge told her barrister she would ‘need to compose herself’ for sentence and she later sat silently in the dock.
Prosecution counsel Michael Duck KC said a restraining order was sought against Wandelt because there had been ‘plain harassment’ against the McCann family.
He said: ‘We submit there has been plain harassment and on the face of the evidence, that that will continue into the future and this is a mechanism by which the McCanns can be afforded some protection.’
The court was told a deportation order had already been served against Wandelt and that it was a matter for the secretary of state whether she remained in custody.
The judge handed restraining orders to both both women. Wandelt was sentenced to six months.
Wandelt sobbed as she was found not guilty of stalking the McCanns for almost three years
Karen Spragg, 61, of Cardiff, arriving at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday. She was cleared
Kate and Gerry McCann have both given evidence during the trial in Leicester
Video footage shows Wandelt and Spragg checking into a hotel before confronting the McCanns at home in Rothley, Leicestershire in December where they are caught on a neighbour’s Ring doorbell.
Audio recorded by Wandelt on her phone reveals the moment she accosted Mr McCann and he tells her she is not Madeleine.
Separately, an audio recording in which a police officer from Operation Grange, the Metropolitan Police investigation into the disappearance of Madeline, tells Wandelt she is not the missing girl is also released today.
Det Con Draycott said he called Miss Wandelt to say ‘in no uncertain terms’ that she was not Madeleine.
The conversation – which was played in court – was recorded without his knowledge, the jury heard, and uploaded to a YouTube crime podcast with Miss Wandelt.
Mr Duck told jurors both women caused ‘very significant distress’ to Kate and Gerry and the messages and calls and the visit to the McCanns’ home showed the ‘ends to which these two ladies would go to make sure they reached their targets … and imposed their will upon them.’
Referring to the visit to the McCanns house in which Mrs McCann can be heard in a recording saying: ‘You are causing a lot of distress stop it’, he said it could not have been ‘clearer in plain English’ what they were doing to her.
In the recording, Wandelt can be heard telling Spragg ‘don’t shout at Kate’ which Mr Duck said was an ‘early and overwhelming demonstration that Mrs Spragg ‘wasn’t just a hanger on but an enthusiastic encourager’.
The court heard Wandelt, who claims she was sexually abused by her step grandfather as a child, first started thinking she was Madeleine in June 2022 while in hospital where she was being treated for depression and self harming.
It was said that from then on she sought to ‘persuade anybody who was prepared to listen that she was Madeleine McCann’ contacting friends of the McCanns as well as Madeleine’s siblings, Sean and Amelie.
She said she had childhood memories of growing up with the twins, who were two when Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment on the Algarve in 2007.
And claimed to have memories of her ‘abduction’ when Kate McCann told her she would find her – which the prosecution said was a ‘particularly wicked’ lie given Mrs McCann’s desperation to find her daughter.
Wandelt shared with the McCanns and online with her one million plus followers photos which she said showed similarities between her and Madeleine and other members of her family.
She also claimed to have DNA evidence which showed she was an almost 70 per cent match to Gerry McCann but which jurors were told was ‘wholly irrelevant and a complete nonsense’.
Wandelt, who worked as a private tutor, recorded much of her contact with the McCanns and published the distressing audio online.
Both Mr and Mrs McCann gave evidence during the five-week trial in which they told how her behavior had left them distressed with both becoming emotional when discussing how Wandelt had also targeted Sean and Amelie and turned up at their house.
Wandelt broke down and sobbed at several points during the trial and screamed at Mrs McCann ‘why are you doing this to me’ as she gave evidence.
She fled from the dock screaming when jurors were told: ‘She is not Madeleine’.
Judge Mrs Justice Cutts, urged jurors to put any emotions or sympathies with Mr and Mrs McCann to one side before considering verdict.
Despite being presented with DNA evidence from police that she is not Madeleine, her defence barrister said she still believed she may be the missing girl.
It can also be revealed that Wandelt claimed she may have been a fourth missing girl, Katelyn Rivera-Helton, who went missing aged 20 months in America in 1999.
Her father Robert was found guilty of her murder even though her body has never been found. The court heard Wandelt asked ChatGPT to examine similarities between her and the missing girl in January.
It came after she earlier said she might Inga Gehricke, who disappeared in Germany in 2015, and Acacia Bishop, from Utah, who was kidnapped in 2003 before finally settling on Madeleine McCann, who vanished from a holiday apartment on the Algarve in 2007.
It can now also be reported that prosecutors took the highly unusual step of attempting to ban all reporting of the trial due after Wandelt gave an interview to a YouTube channel from behind bars.
And in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Julia’s father Jacek Wandelt revealed the agonising story of his daughter’s obsession and his own heartache at watching it unfold.
‘I have been following the case, and I just want them [the judge and jury] to see that Julia is not bad, she is sick and needs help,’ he said.
‘The situation is madness, I know the McCanns have lost their daughter and don’t have any idea of what has happened, but I have lost my daughter as well.’
Wandelt, who claims she was sexually abused by her step grandfather as a child, first started thinking she was Madeleine (pictured) in June 2022
A sketch of Wandelt in the dock at Leicester Crown Court
Pictures shared by Julia Wandelt which she claimed showed a similarity to Madeleine
Another imaged shared on social media reportedly showing a similarity between her and Kate McCann
A composite shared by Wandelt on social media claiming similarities between her and Gerry
Julia Wandelt claimed in social media posts that she had similar marks on her face to Madeleine
Her defence barrister Tom Price had said she was not ‘wicked’ as the Crown had suggested but was ‘desperate’ and her behaviour was that of a ‘rather sad and pathetic young woman.’
He told jurors in his closing statement: ‘You may think she came across confused, certainly a troubled young lady who has had in life her fair share of troubles: sexually abused by her step grandfather, mental health problems not doubt linked to the abuse she has suffered, somebody who has self harmed somebody who has attempt suicide… you would have to have a heart of stone not to feel some compassion and sympathy for that young woman.
‘And against all that she is confuse about her identity and who she is …set off on this three year course to find out what her life is about and who she is.’
Simon Russell Flint KC, defending Spragg, submitted that Wandelt was on an ‘increasingly desperate quest’ to try to find out and establish who she is.
He said Spragg’s ‘sole purpose’ had been to find out whether Wandelt ‘might be the missing Madeleine’.
‘Karen Spragg came to be a true friend to Julia Wandelt,’ Mr Russell Flint said. ‘She almost suffered with her. She supported her, she believed in her. She wanted to help her find her true identity.’
