Madeleine McCann’s mum says ‘stalker’ contacting other daughter was ‘the final straw’

A woman who became convinced she is missing Madeleine McCann told Kate McCann ‘you don’t give up on your daughter’, a court has heard.

Julia Wandelt is on trial at Leicester crown court accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann as well as their other children.

Wandelt, 24, claimed she is the missing girl, who disappeared from a holiday villa in Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 and remains unsolved.

Kate McCann is giving evidence in court today, and said she first became aware of Wandelt’s existence about three years ago.

She said she had ignored all of the defendant’s approaches until September 2024, when she found out Wandelt had been contacting her other daughter, Amelie, since January of that year.

Kate told the court: ‘It was the final straw for me. I discussed it with the police.’

Wandelt, a Polish national, is on trial alongside 61-year-old Karen Spragg.

She is accused of turning up at the McCanns’ family home and signing a letter addressed to them as Madeleine.

Prosecutor Michael Duck KC read excerpts of messages Wandelt sent to Kate, in which the defendant said ‘let me prove I am not a liar’ and ‘give me a chance, I don’t want money’.

A voicemail sent to Kate by Wandelt was played to the court, the BBC reports, which said: ‘If I am her, then everything should be OK but if I’m not, which you probably think, then I’ll leave you alone.

‘I know my accent is Polish because I live here… I’m not pretty like Madeleine but I know what I know and I know and what I remember.

‘Please give me a chance, you don’t give up on your daughter, I’m not crazy.’

After confirming that she could remember the messages ‘arriving’ at her mobile phone, Kate was asked by Mr Duck if she had responded to the messages.

She answered: ‘No. I did not want to engage.’

Kate was then asked about a visit Wandelt and Spragg made to the McCanns’ home on December 7 of last year.

She recalled: ‘I pulled up on the drive… it was really dark, it was the weekend, we had the gales.

‘I was opening the boot to get something out and I heard someone say “Kate”.

‘I knew it was someone behind me, but I didn’t know who it was. I had pictures of her (Wandelt), plus she was quite vivid in my mind anyway because of the communications.

‘She called me mum I think, she was asking for a DNA test, “why wont you do a DNA test?” and pleading with me.

‘I got a fright anyway; when I realised who it was I felt quite distressed.

‘Then they followed me, I remember trying to close the door and Julia trying to put her hands out to stop me closing the door.’

Kate described Spragg as being ‘slightly more aggressive’ than Wandelt during the visit, adding: ‘She was a bit more kind of… “don’t you want to find your daughter?”‘

When asked if she wanted the women there, and whether she had made that obvious, Kate replied: ‘I did. I told them to leave. I told them I was distressed.’

She phoned her husband after managing to get inside her home and lock the door.

Wandelt and Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February 2025.

The trial continues.

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