A Polish national who claims to be Madeleine McCann hysterically sobbed and shouted “why are you doing this to me?” after the youngster’s mother spoke of her distress at being confronted by her outside her home.
Prosecutors allege Julia Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, peddled the myth that she was Madeleine – who went missing in Portugal in 2007 – while stalking the missing girl’s parents by sending emails, making phone calls and turning up at their address.
Both Kate and Gerry McCann gave evidence in front of a jury at Leicester Crown Court about the impact Wandelt’s claims that she was their missing daughter has had on them.
Mr McCann said: “Well, we know she’s not our daughter.
“It has many effects – we don’t know what happened to Madeleine, there’s no evidence to say she’s dead.
“We really hope, and we know it’s only a glimmer, that Madeleine is alive.
“When so many people claim to be our missing daughter, it inevitably pulls your heartstrings, but there’s wider effect that is more damaging.”
Mr McCann said there were people that “crazily” believe conspiracy theories, and that he and his wife do not want to find her in a “conspiracy”.
He added: “That’s detrimental to any existing investigation and obviously we have always put that first.”
In her evidence on Wednesday morning, Mrs McCann said part of her brain was “saying ‘what if’” because of Wandelt’s frequent messages, but added: “Having seen a photo of her, she’s Polish… it doesn’t make sense.”
Wandelt, 24, and Karen Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry between June 2022 and February this year.
Asked about the impact on her over the last two and a half years, Mrs McCann said: “I feel like it has escalated, the level of stress and anxiety it’s caused me has increased over that time.”
Giving evidence on Wednesday from behind a curtain screening her from the dock, Mrs McCann said it is only since they were arrested on February 19 this year that she has felt “more relaxed”.
She told jurors she did not know whether Wandelt had been crying when she turned up at her family home on December 7 last year, but said the Polish national had been “pleading” and “asking about DNA tests again”.
Mrs McCann, who said she had been made aware by police of communications sent by Wandelt as early as June 2022, told the court: “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.
“She called me mum I think, she was asking for a DNA test, ‘why won’t you do a DNA test?’ and pleading with me.”
Asked about the manner of Spragg, who had attended the address with Wandelt, Mrs McCann said: “I would say she was slightly more aggressive.
“She was a bit more kind of … ‘don’t you want to find your daughter?’.”
Asked by prosecutor Michael Duck KC if she wanted the women there, Mrs McCann said she did not.
Mr Duck said: “Did you make that plain?”
“I did,” Mrs McCann replied. “I told them to leave. I told them I was distressed.”
Mrs McCann said Wandelt and Spragg “did not give any indication” they would hurt her when they visited the family home.
Mr McCann said the two women “definitely” showed no sign of leaving and started banging on the door and “shouting”.
He said of his interaction with the women: “I think it was straight away I said the Metropolitan Police eliminated Julia from the inquiries.
“She (Spragg) said something about a cover up and also of me being a member of the Masons. I was pretty astounded. I don’t know much about the Masons, I did not know they allow Catholics in – I said something like that.
“She said again about covering up.”
Mr McCann said that Wandelt was holding a plastic folder that she was trying to “force into his hand”.
Prosecutor Michael Duck KC asked if Mr McCann was prepared to take what Wandelt was trying to give him.
He replied: “No. I was trying to get inside the house.”
Questioned about Wandelt’s claims to be her daughter and her requests for a DNA test, Mrs McCann said: “I think it was getting to me so much that a little bit of my brain was saying ‘what if?’
“Having seen a photo of her, she’s Polish… it doesn’t make sense.”
Mrs McCann added: “I can’t say what Madeleine looks like now, but if I saw a photo of her, I would recognise her.”
She told the court she had a “little niggle” about doing a DNA test because Wandelt has been “so incessant”.
Mrs McCann told the jury that the “persistence” of Wandelt’s behaviour started to “get to” her.
She said: “I almost wanted a DNA test to put it to bed.”
Madeleine’s mother also spoke of how people continue to turn up at her home with information about her daughter’s disappearance “sporadically, every six months”.
She said people have come to her with information recently, but it is “not as frequent now”, compared with shortly after the youngster went missing.
Mrs McCann told the jury that fewer than 10 people have contacted her claiming to be her missing daughter.
The trial continues.
