Madeleine McCann’s sister has revealed how an alleged stalker claiming to be her missing sibling sent ‘creepy’ messages of about them playing together as children.
Julia Wandelt allegedly sent a series of unwanted emails, made numerous phone calls and even turned up at the McCanns’ family home, a court heard.
The 24-year-old Polish national falsely claims to be Madeleine, who disappeared while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.
A court has heard how she believed she had memories of the three-year-old’s childhood, playing games with Madeleine’s younger siblings Amelie and Sean, before then claiming to have been trafficked to Poland.
Twins Amelie and Sean were sleeping in the same room as Madeleine when she disappeared and have never publicly spoken of Madeleine.
However, 20-year-old Amelie gave evidence in Leicester Crown Court, describing how she had been left ‘distressed’ and ‘uncomfortable’ by Wandelt’s messages.
‘It’s quite disturbing. She’s coming up with these supposed memories even though she’s not Madeleine,’ Miss McCann told the court via video link.
Telling jurors about one alleged message, Miss McCann said: ‘I know how I was calling you when we were playing once, I know what happened.’
In another message, Wandelt claimed she remembers her and Sean ‘playing Ring a Ring o’ Roses with other kids’.
‘It made me feel quite uncomfortable… quite creepy,’ Amelie said.
Miss McCann told the court she did not tell her family about the messages sent by Julia Wandelt sent on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok as she did not want to add any ‘additional stress to my parents’.
Asked by Nadia Silver, prosecuting, if she had replied to any messages, Miss McCann, softly spoken in a black patterned blouse, replied: ‘No I did not feel it was appropriate to get involved, I don’t usually reply to people I don’t know to protect myself really.’
Jurors were told Wandelt sent a letter to Miss McCann along with photographs of them both in a bid to demonstrate their supposed likeness.
Miss McCann said: ‘I didn’t like it. She had clearly edited and altered the pictures to make me look more like her which once again was quite disturbing.’
Miss Silver asked if she was at any point tempted to do a DNA test. ‘Why were you so sure she was not your sister?’ she asked.
Miss McCann replied: ‘I think because she was on the radar of the police and my family since 2022 nothing had happed in that time … then I just knew that it wasn’t her.
‘I have a feeling there would be something that I would maybe recognise or believe more whereas I did not think she looked like us and she is Polish and has Polish family who are her parents and it did not make any sense to me.’
A statement from Sean McCann was read to the court by Miss Silver.
In it he said: ‘I do not believe she is my sister the fact that she is doing this has cause me a great deal of stress and I find it deeply disturbing.’
The court heard that in one message from Wandelt to Miss McCann said ‘I will do whatever is needed to prove my identity’. Miss Silver asked: ‘How did you interpret that message, how did it make you feel?
Miss McCann said: ‘It is clear that she thinks she is Madeleine and she can’t understand why no one is helping her to get proof or whatever and she thinks I would have told my parents to listen to her.’
Miss Silver said: ‘The passage where she says she will do whatever is needed, how did that in particular make you feel?
‘It made me feel not scared but it kind of shows you the lengths she would go to try and get heard which is also a bit scary as you don’t know what she will do next.’
Earlier, a statement from the McCanns’ neighbour Dr Alex Milton about the night Wandelt and her ‘supporter’ Karen Spragg turned up was read to the court.
He has a Ring doorbell which captured a white car said to belong to Spragg.
Spragg, 61, of Cardiff, and Wandelt, 24, from Poland, are on trial accused of stalking the McCanns.
On Monday, Wandelt was ushered from court crying hysterically after screaming ‘why are you doing this?’ at the missing girl’s mother.
In dramatic scenes during Mrs McCann’s testimony, Wandelt started sobbing uncontrollably before shouting and being taken out of the dock as a judge called for a break in proceedings.
It came after an emotional Mrs McCann, 57, told Leicester Crown Court that 18 years on from her daughter’s disappearance all she wants is for Madeleine to be back and ‘calling me mum’.
Wandelt is accused of calling, leaving voicemails, sending messages and turning up at the McCanns’ home demanding a DNA test to prove she is Madeleine, despite ‘unequivocal evidence’ to the contrary. Wandelt is 24 – Madeleine would be 22 now.
Also on trial is her ‘supporter’ Karen Spragg, 61, who is accused of stalking the McCanns, causing ‘serious alarm or distress’, from June 1, 2022, to February 21 this year. Both deny the charges.
Asked about the impact of a letter sent by Wandelt addressed ‘Dear Mom’ and signed ‘Madeleine’, Mrs McCann said: ‘Obviously that is the thing I want most, for Madeleine to be back and to be calling me ‘mum’. That was really stressful for me. Referring to me as her mum is hard.’
She said the ‘incessant’ nature of Wandelt’s contact made her consider taking a DNA test, even though she knew from looking at photos she was not her daughter.
Gerry McCann, giving evidence later, told how he was left ‘angry and frustrated’ by Wandelt’s ‘unrelenting’ attempts to contact his wife. He became emotional when describing how he discovered she had also contacted their twins, Madeleine’s younger siblings Sean and Amelie, now aged 20.
He said there was ‘no evidence Madeleine was dead’ and people claiming to be her only hampered the investigation into her disappearance. Speaking of the twins, Mr McCann, 57, a consultant cardiologist, said: ‘We have done our best to try to protect them.’
After pausing to compose himself, he went on: ‘Given what has happened to Madeleine we try keep them out of the media as much as possible.’
Micheal Duck, prosecuting, told Mr McCann to ‘take whatever time you like’ as he struggled to talk though his tears. Mr McCann added: ‘As a parent you want to try to protect your children. We know social media can be really damaging, all the horrible things that have been written about us and nasty stuff online.’
He said the assertion by Wandelt that she was Madeleine was ‘very emotive and distressing’.
‘We know she’s not our daughter,’ he said. ‘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 [a] wider effect that is more damaging.’
He said he also feared Wandelt’s attempts could become physical.
Mrs McCann was also asked about an annual vigil for Madeleine in their home village of Rothley, near Leicester, which Wandelt turned up to in May 2024. She had hoped to speak to the McCanns but they did not attend that year.
Mr Duck asked: ‘What was your feeling about her presence?’ Mrs McCann replied: ‘It [the annual vigil] is quite a hard but positive experience. It would have taken away from the actual reason we were there.’
Eight months later, having again travelled from Poland, Wandelt turned up at the McCanns’ home with Spragg. Mrs McCann said she returned from a swimming gala in Sheffield and was taking items out of her car when she heard a woman shout ‘Kate’.
‘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,’ she told jurors.
Asked by Mr Duck how she felt to be ‘greeted in that manner on your driveway’, Mrs McCann said: ‘I got a fright… I felt quite distressed. Then they followed me, I remember trying to close the door and Julia trying to stop me.’
The trial continues.
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