Covert DNA Analysis Verified Accused Stalker Was Not Madeleine McCann, States Officer
An accused stalker who claimed to be Madeleine McCann was excluded after a confidential DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the long-lost child, police have revealed in court.
Targeted Behavior Targeting McCann Family
Julia Wandelt, aged 24, is accused of a stalking campaign against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.
The Polish national flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and visited their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.
Official Statements
Giving evidence on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.
DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had earlier asserted to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.
“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from someone probably not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.
“I genuinely have major concerns about approaching the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been very traumatic and difficult for the family.”
DNA Comparison
He said investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of no physical similarity and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on stalking charges, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken during detention”.
He said: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”
Legal Testimony
Jurors learned that in April this year, Cranwell saw Wandelt in custody and told her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. Jurors were told he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”
The court heard that while they spoke, Wandelt inquired: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he responded: “Yes.”
He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have manipulated the sample”, remarking: “There existed a chance she would not believe she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”
Psychological Toll
During previous hearings, the court heard how the McCanns were left frightened and upset by their “creepy” and “deeply disturbing” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to push for a DNA test.
The jury were told how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.
The accused women both deny one count of stalking. The trial continues.
