Alleged Harasser Asked: 'However Imagine I Might Be Madeleine?'

A female charged with stalking Kate McCann apparently left her a recorded message which asked: "imagine I am Madeleine?"

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, who witnesses stated has repeatedly asserted she was the vanished Madeleine McCann, and her co-defendant are facing charges indicted with harassing Kate and Gerry McCann from June 2022 and February this year.

On Monday, Leicester Crown Court was told phone records and evidence recovered from phones documented Ms Wandelt consistently demanding Madeleine's mother for a genetic test over that period.

Madeleine's case in 2007 - when she was three years old during a family holiday in Portugal - is considered the most widely reported child disappearance cases and is still unresolved.

'I Do Not Need Money'

One phone message, presented in court, recorded Ms Wandelt saying: "I know I'm heavy and plain like Madeleine was, but I believe what I feel."

While one recording of Ms Wandelt's recordings with Mrs McCann's voicemail stated: "Suppose there is a tiny probability that I'm her? What happens next? Isn't that significant for you?"

"I don't want money, I maintain a life here in Poland, I simply desire to discover," she added.

The jury was told that through electronic messages, text messages and communications, Ms Wandelt demanded a genetic test, forwarded youth pictures to her phone in a effort to demonstrate a resemblance to Mrs McCann's vanished daughter, and claimed to have "flashbacks" from a early life with the McCanns.

An intelligence analyst, an intelligence analyst with Leicestershire Police who compiled the information, told the court there "seemed to lack any responses" from Mrs McCann.

Ms Wandelt also reached out to family friends of the McCanns, based on the communication logs.

On 9 October 2024, the father answered a phone call from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, stating she had "the wrong phone."

During that incident Ms Wandelt left a voicemail on Mrs McCann's recording saying "I won't give up and I will prove my claim."

The court was informed Mrs Spragg developed a relationship online with Ms Wandelt prior to joining her on a trip to the McCanns' residence in the county in that winter.

Communication data showed Mrs Spragg had communicated through messaging service to Mrs McCann to say the news outlets had characterized Ms Wandelt as "mentally unstable" but that she deserved to be treated respectfully in the months leading up to the appearance to Rothley, Leicestershire, in December 2024.

The court heard message exchanges between the two individuals, in that autumn, discussing attempting to obtain Mrs McCann's DNA samples from her garbage or from utensils at a restaurant.

"We need to make a stand," Mrs Spragg told Ms Wandelt.

On the occasion of the trip to their house, Mrs Spragg dispatched a communication which stated: "We find ourselves sat adjacent to the McCanns' house with our headlights off like investigators. I had hoped to do this with someone else I hadn't anticipated I would be engaged in this with the McCanns."

The trial continues.