Alleged McCann family stalker Julia Wandelt ‘still questions who she is’

A woman on trial accused of stalking Madeleine McCann’s parents told a court she is still questioning her identity after claiming to be the missing girl.

Julia Wandelt, 24, who a jury heard has repeatedly claimed she is the missing child, is charged with stalking Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.

Taking to the stand at Leicester Crown Court on Monday, she said she had limited memories of her childhood and “could only remember abuse” after experiences with her step-grandfather.

Miss Wandelt, of Jana Kochanowskiego in Lubin, Poland, denies stalking Mr and Mrs McCann, causing serious alarm and distress.

The trial previously heard Miss Wandelt has claimed to be Mr and Mrs McCann’s daughter since 2022.

However, a DNA test taken from her on her arrest in February 2025 “conclusively proved” she is not the missing child, the jury has been told.

Miss Wandelt told the court she was abused as a child by her step-grandfather at about nine years old.

She said she told her grandmother in 2010, and she told her not to tell anyone.

Her step-grandfather was convicted and later sentenced to two and a half years in prison, the court heard.

The abuse, Miss Wandelt said, left her feeling suicidal and she started to see a psychologist in about 2020.

She said: “She made me reflect on my life more and think about everything that happened. I realised I only remember abuse. My friends, they could remember things.

“I started with asking questions because I just could not believe there was nothing else in the story of what happened to me.”

She added: “I started asking my parents about everything.”

When asked by defence barrister Tom Price KC if she still questions her identity, Miss Wandelt said: “Yes, I do.”

Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared during a family holiday in Portugal on 3 May 2007. The case remains unsolved.

Miss Wandelt told the court she discovered who Madeleine was when she was in hospital in the summer of 2022.

She said she spoke to her father, who told her the man who had abused her as a child had “been involved in kidnapping”.

She told jurors it was at that time that she had been considering whether she had been adopted, and decided to “check out databases” of missing people.

When asked if Miss Wandelt found anyone who matched her, she said: “There were not actually a lot of people my age or around my age, but that is how I found Madeleine.”

Miss Wandelt said she started to think she was not her parents’ child during 2023.

She told the court she asked them to do a DNA test to confirm she was their child, but they refused.

Miss Wandelt told the court a sketch of a suspect in the Madeleine case looked “quite similar to the person who abused me” and had the same surname, which she said was a “big factor”.

Miss Wandelt said she was not attracted to Madeleine’s case for fame or financial gain.

“I just wanted to find out who I am,” she said.

The defendant said she discovered Operation Grange – the Metropolitan Police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance – and got in touch with them in 2022.

She sent an email stating “I think I could be Madeleine McCann”, the court heard, and told investigators that her date of birth was in 2001, but said “documents can be faked”.

Miss Wandelt told the court she wanted to try to get in touch with “everyone I could think of” before contacting the McCann family.

“In general, if someone’s child is missing I would assume it would be upsetting to raise a lead which could result as a false hope at the end,” she said.

“I wanted to try everything before getting in touch with the parents of Madeleine directly.

“I didn’t want to give them false hope of cause them any distress.”

When asked why she did eventually contact the McCann family, the defendant said she thought they had been “misled”.

“The police were not interested in finding Kate and Gerry’s daughter,” she added.

Karen Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road, Cardiff, faces the same charge, which she also denies.

The trial continues.