A UK jury on Friday convicted a Polish woman who had claimed to be Madeleine McCann — one of the world’s highest-profile missing persons — of harassing the girl’s parents, but acquitted her of stalking them.
Madeleine was just three years old when she vanished 18 years ago from the apartment where her family was vacationing on Portugal’s Algarve coast, triggering a massive global search to find her.
Jurors found Julia Wandelt, 24, from Lubin in Poland, guilty of harassment but cleared her of the more serious charge of stalking “involving serious alarm and distress” to Kate and Gerry McCann.
The McCann parents, both doctors, have borne the brunt of international attention ever since their daughter disappeared in 2007.
Nearly two decades on, the case remains unsolved.
Standing in the dock at Leicester Crown Court in central England, Wandelt gasped and put her hands to her face when she heard the verdict.
The jury also cleared co-defendant Karen Spragg, from the Welsh capital Cardiff, of the same counts after she was accused of helping Wandelt show up at the couple’s home and contacting them by phone and in messages.
She cried on hearing the decision.
The unanimous verdicts followed a month-long trial that saw both parents and their other daughter make rare public appearances by testifying in court.
– ‘Tried everything’ –
Kate McCann spoke of her distress after Wandelt banged on the door of the family home and appeared at a vigil for Madeleine.
Meanwhile, the missing girl’s younger sister Amelie recounted receiving “creepy” social media messages as Wandelt made repeated ignored requests for the McCann parents to take a DNA test.
But Wandelt’s lawyer Tom Price had urged jurors to acquit her, arguing she was confused about her parental background.
Giving evidence herself, Wandelt revealed a troubled background, having previously self-harmed and attempted suicide after she was abused as a child by her step-grandfather.
She told the court a sketch of a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance looked “quite similar” to her abuser and that the suspect shared his surname.
She noted that was a “big factor” in her beginning to believe she was the missing girl.
Wandelt claimed to have limited childhood memories but that they included being with the McCann family, playing ring-a-ring-a-roses and feeding Madeleine’s younger brother Sean.
She insisted she “tried everything” — including contacting Interpol, police and missing persons charities — before contacting the McCanns.
The Polish national insisted she had not made the claims for attention or financial gain but to “fully know who I am”.
“She wanted answers to the complex questions that may arise from her rather unfortunate background,” Price told jurors.
– ‘Cruel’ –
However, prosecutors detailed “unequivocal scientific evidence” from a forensic expert showing she does not match Madeleine’s DNA profile and that she has no familial link to the McCanns.
In his closing remarks, prosecutor Michael Duck called Wandelt “capable of being extremely manipulative”.
He accused both defendants of “tormenting” the McCanns and trying to “impose their will” on them despite knowing their “cruel and unforgiving” actions were wrong.
Spragg was accused of aiding her by leaving messages for Kate McCann, sending emails and “confronting” the couple on their driveway.
She also perpetuated conspiracy theories, including by telling police that the parents “arranged the kidnapping and the abduction” of their daughter, the court heard.
Spragg’s lawyer said his client’s sole purpose had been to find out whether Wandelt “might be the missing Madeleine” and said she had been “a true friend” to her co-defendant.
The maximum sentence Wandelt can now face is six months custody, but the trial judge noted immediately after the verdicts that she has been in custody since her arrest in February.
The McCann case was thrust back into the spotlight in September after prime suspect Christian Brueckner was released from a German prison after finishing a seven-year jail term for rape.
He has not been charged over Madeleine’s disappearance due to a lack of evidence, even though German prosecutors named him as their top suspect in 2020.
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© Agence France-Presse