Alleged Harasser Inquired: 'Yet What If I Could Be Madeleine?'
A woman accused with stalking Kate McCann allegedly left her a recorded message which questioned: "imagine I am Madeleine?"
Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, who a jury heard has persistently claimed she was the vanished Madeleine McCann, and her co-defendant are on trial indicted with pursuing Kate and Gerry McCann from June 2022 and February this year.
On Monday, Leicester Crown Court heard communication data and information retrieved from phones recorded Ms Wandelt consistently asking Madeleine's mother for a DNA test throughout 2023 and 2024.
Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 - as a three-year-old during a vacation in Portugal - is among the most widely reported missing child cases and continues to be unsolved.
'I Am Not Seeking Money'
One recorded message, shared in court, documented Ms Wandelt stating: "I know I'm overweight and not pretty like Madeleine used to be, but I feel what I know."
While another instance of Ms Wandelt's monologues with Mrs McCann's recording stated: "Imagine there is a small chance that I am Madeleine? What then? Wouldn't that be important for you?"
"I do not need money, I maintain a living here in Poland, I just want to discover," the recording stated.
The jury was informed that by means of emails, text messages and calls, Ms Wandelt demanded a biological test, transmitted youth pictures to her phone in a attempt to display a resemblance to Mrs McCann's missing daughter, and asserted to have "flashbacks" from a youth with the McCanns.
The investigator, an investigator with the police force who compiled the evidence, advised the court there "seemed to lack any responses" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt also reached out to close associates of the McCanns, as per the communication logs.
On that date, Mr McCann responded to a call from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, stating she had "a wrong number."
During that incident Ms Wandelt recorded a recording on Mrs McCann's answerphone saying "I won't give up and I intend to demonstrate my position."
The court was informed Mrs Spragg struck up a association through digital means with Ms Wandelt prior to assisting her on a trip to the McCanns' residence in that area in that winter.
Call logs revealed Mrs Spragg had reached out through WhatsApp to Mrs McCann to state the press had characterized Ms Wandelt as "emotionally disturbed" but that she should be taken seriously in the months leading up to the visit to the village, Leicestershire, in December 2024.
The court heard correspondence between the two individuals, in November 2024, discussing trying to acquire Mrs McCann's genetic material from her trash or from cutlery at a dining venue.
"We must take action," the co-defendant told Ms Wandelt.
On the evening of the trip to their residence, Mrs Spragg transmitted a communication which expressed: "We are sat adjacent to the McCanns' residence with our vehicle dark like investigators. I had hoped to achieve this with another person I didn't imagine I would be engaged in this with the McCanns."
The trial ongoing.