🔗 Share this article

A individual charged with pursuing Kate McCann allegedly deposited her a recorded message which asked: "what if 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 standing trial indicted with harassing Kate and Gerry McCann from June 2022 and February this year.

On Monday, Leicester Crown Court learned communication data and data recovered from phones documented Ms Wandelt consistently requesting Madeleine's mother for a biological test during 2023 and 2024.

Madeleine's vanishing in 2007 - as a three-year-old during a family holiday in Portugal - is among the most widely reported missing child cases and continues to be unresolved.

'I Am Not Seeking Money'

Another phone message, presented in court, documented Ms Wandelt declaring: "I realize I'm heavy and not pretty like Madeleine was, but I feel what I know."

While one recording of Ms Wandelt's one-way conversations with Mrs McCann's recording said: "Imagine there is a slight possibility that I'm her? What then? Isn't that significant for you?"

"I don't want money, I maintain a life here in Poland, I simply desire to know," the message continued.

The panel was informed that through emails, SMS messages and calls, Ms Wandelt asked for a genetic test, sent youth pictures to her phone in a attempt to demonstrate a likeness to Mrs McCann's vanished daughter, and claimed to have "flashbacks" from a childhood with the McCanns.

The investigator, an intelligence analyst with law enforcement who gathered the information, told the court there "seemed to lack any answers" from Mrs McCann.

Ms Wandelt additionally contacted acquaintances of the McCanns, according to the communication logs.

On that date, Gerry McCann responded to a call from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, stating she had "the wrong phone."

During that incident Ms Wandelt recorded a recording on Mrs McCann's answerphone saying "I will continue and I will prove my claim."

The court was informed Mrs Spragg developed a relationship online with Ms Wandelt prior to accompanying her on a trip to the McCanns' property in Leicestershire in last December.

Call logs demonstrated Mrs Spragg had communicated through communication app to Mrs McCann to state the news outlets had depicted Ms Wandelt as "mentally unstable" but that she should be considered genuine in the months leading up to the trip to the village, the county, in that winter.

The court heard correspondence between the two accused, in November 2024, discussing trying to get Mrs McCann's DNA samples from her bins or from utensils at a eating establishment.

"We need to assert ourselves," the co-defendant informed Ms Wandelt.

On the night of the appearance to their home, the defendant transmitted a text which said: "We're currently positioned near the McCanns' residence with our lights out similar to investigators. I desired to do this with another person I never thought I would be engaged in this with the McCanns."

The proceedings ongoing.