A Polish woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann has been found guilty of harassing the missing girl’s parents by turning up at their home and sending sinister letters and messages repeatedly begging for a DNA test.
Julia Wandelt, 24, put her hands to her face when jurors returned a guilty verdict for the harassment of Kate and Gerry McCann on Friday, but a not guilty verdict for a charge of stalking.
A five-week trial at Leicester Crown Court heard Wandelt claimed to have memories, induced by hypnosis sessions, of being abducted and of living with the McCanns as a child, including feeding Madeleine’s younger brother Sean and playing ring-a-ring-a-roses.
Jurors heard that Wandelt, who had an emotional outburst while Mrs McCann gave evidence against her, tried to persuade “anybody prepared to listen” that she was Madeleine, and that she had been kidnapped from Portugal and abused with other girls in Poland.
Wandelt called and messaged Mrs McCann more than 60 times in one day on April 13 last year, claiming to have a memory of the mother stroking her head and saying she would find her before the abduction.
Her co-defendant, Karen Spragg, was found not guilty of stalking and harassment.
Wandelt and Spragg held hands in the dock before the verdicts were handed down, after the jury deliberated for more than seven hours.
Wandelt, who sat beside Spragg in the dock, gasped at the verdicts, while Spragg cried.
Trial judge Mrs Justice Cutts pointed out immediately after the verdicts that the maximum sentence for harassment was six months’ imprisonment.
The judge said: “I think it also is a fact that Julia Wandelt has been in custody since her arrest in February of this year.
“So she will have been in custody, in fact, for longer than the maximum sentence.”
Mr and Mrs McCann were confronted by Wandelt on their driveway last December, where they were begged for a DNA test.
Both Madeleine’s parents gave evidence during the trial, from behind a curtain shielding them from Wandelt.
During their emotional evidence, Mr McCann said he and his wife still cling onto hope that Madeleine may be alive today.
He also claimed Wandelt’s actions were hampering the ongoing inquiry into his daughter’s disappearance, while Mrs McCann said she had been distressed by Wandelt’s behaviour, particularly a letter sent by the defendant addressing her as “mum”.
In recordings of the interaction outside their home, Mrs McCann can be heard saying: “You’re causing us a lot of distress.”
The following day, the couple received a sinister letter addressed “Dear Mum (Kate)” and signed “Lots of love, Madeleine”.
Wandelt referred to Mrs McCann as “mummy” and said “you are my real mother” in other messages sent to her phone.
She told the jury during her evidence that she persistently contacted Mr and Mrs McCann because she thought they were being “misled” by the police and she wanted a DNA test to prove her relation to them.
Wandelt also told jurors she believes Mr McCann was involved in Madeleine’s disappearance and that Mrs McCann knew of the abduction, but they “had no other choice”.
The defendant also suggested that the ongoing police investigation into the girl’s disappearance called Operation Grange, which has received more than £13 million in funding, involves money laundering.
