A Polish woman who is accused of stalking Madeleine McCann’s parents while claiming to be their missing daughter told a court she has concerns for her safety, especially after someone in prison allegedly “slipped something” in her drink days before her trial.
Julia Wandelt, 24, told Leicester Crown Court “someone should finally investigate my claims properly”, because even if she is acquitted of the charge she said she will still not know her identity.
She also told the court that a friend, whose wife was a victim in the Post Office scandal, offered to pay for her DNA test because she is also a “victim of a miscarriage of justice”.
When answering questions from her co-defendant Karen Spragg’s barrister Simon Russell Flint KC on Wednesday, Wandelt said: “Even in prison, a few days before my trial, someone slipped something in my drink and the officers didn’t want to help.
“I have been concerned about my safety since I told my story.”
The defendant tearfully told the jury she agreed she was “vulnerable”, had suffered with depression, been a victim of sexual violence and had been “fooled, duped and conned” by an American woman called Fia Johansson, who offered to help her.
Speaking about when she took documents to Beaumont Leys police station in Leicester after attending the McCanns’ home in December last year, Wandelt said: “I think that someone should finally investigate my claims properly.
“Even if I go out from this courtroom today, if I’m not guilty, I still won’t know who I am.”
Prosecutors allege Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, peddled the myth she is Madeleine, who went missing aged three during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007, while stalking Kate and Gerry McCann by sending emails, making phone calls and turning up at their address.
She told the court that a friend of Spragg, called Steven Dempster, had offered to pay for a DNA test in Cardiff so she could use it to take “legal action”.
Wandelt said: “His wife was a victim of the Post Office scandal – they wanted to help me because I’m a victim of a miscarriage of justice as well.”
She told the jury Mr Dempster would not help her get the DNA test if she contacted the McCanns when she planned to fly to the UK earlier this year.
Wandelt added: “If they (the McCanns) didn’t want to speak with me the first time, why would they the second time?”
Asked if she ever intended to cause serious alarm or distress to Mr and Mrs McCann, and whether she thinks she caused them distress, Wandelt replied: “No.”
Wandelt told the jury that when she approached Mrs McCann outside her home in December last year, she “didn’t see” how the mother could be distressed.
She said: “From what I saw, from what Karen saw… the moment she (Mrs McCann) started crying was actually the moment she saw me. The impression I got… was that she was crying because of the emotions – maybe the chance of me being her daughter.
“I didn’t see how she could feel distressed because she wants to find Madeleine and I believe she wants to.”
Speaking about when an officer from Operation Grange, the ongoing investigation into the disappearance, told her she is not Madeleine, Wandelt said: “I will never understand why this case gets such a big fund because there are hundreds of missing children.
“If they have resources, why not do a DNA test?”
The court heard Wandelt filled out an online complaint form making allegations against the police.
Wandelt said: “I felt the approach and attitude towards me was intimidating. I simply asked for help for all these years.
“I think that with all the financial resources allocated to the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, it would have been the right thing to do for the Metropolitan Police to investigate my claims.”
Wandelt agreed that her co-defendant Spragg supported her and “wanted to solve the mystery”, the court heard.
She told the jury they were “joking” when they discussed taking rubbish from the McCanns’ home and bringing it back to their hotel.
Wandelt and 61-year-old Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny one count of stalking between June 2022 and February this year.
The trial continues.
