An army of online conspiracy theorists fuelled a Polish woman’s harassment of Madeleine McCann’s parents after she claimed to be the missing girl.
Julia Wandelt, 24, gasped as a jury convicted her of tormenting Kate and Gerry McCann in a campaign that began on the internet but resulted in her turning up at the family’s home.
The couple said they hoped Wandelt would ‘receive the appropriate care support she needs’, and that ‘any vulnerability will not be exploited by others’.
It comes after the trial heard Wandelt was aided and encouraged by more than a million online followers – many of whom believe the McCanns were involved in the disappearance of their daughter.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Wandelt’s father Jacek, a 60-year-old radiologist, revealed she changed after being abused by a relative. He recalled the last time he saw her when she told him: ‘Daddy, I love you, but you are not my dad. I am Madeleine McCann.’
Her devastated family had, by that point, already tried to voice their fears after her online ‘I am Madeleine’ campaign garnered mass attention, saying in a statement: ‘She always wanted to be popular. What’s happening now has given her one million followers. We’re scared.’
Wandelt, a private tutor, was convicted of harassment but acquitted on the more serious charge of stalking the McCanns following a five-week trial at Leicester Crown Court.
She was handed a six-month jail term but has already spent nine months in custody awaiting trial so could, technically, have walked free from court. But she was instead taken back to prison, where it is understood moves are under way to deport her to Poland. The final decision will rest with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
Julia Wandelt, 24, gasped as a jury convicted her of tormenting Kate and Gerry McCann in a campaign that began on the internet but resulted in her turning up at the family’s home
Kate and Gerry McCann both gave evidence from behind a screen at the trial, where they said: ‘Despite the jury’s guilty verdict of harassment, we take no pleasure in the result. Like most people, we did not want to go through a court process and only wanted the harassment to stop’
Judge Mrs Justice Cutts imposed a restraining order that bans the defendant from contacting the McCanns in any way or from publishing or broadcasting any information in relation to the family or the case.
Sentencing Wandelt, the judge she said she had caused distress to both the McCanns, but ‘particularly Kate’, and an indefinite restraining order was necessary as she posed a ‘significant risk of harassment’ towards them in future. She said: ‘Even when giving evidence you did not accept you were not Madeleine.’
Wandelt’s co-accused Karen Spragg, 61, was acquitted of stalking and harassment but also handed the same restraining order after the judge said Spragg ‘enjoyed the drama’ and supported Wandelt while ‘indulging in her conspiracy theories’.
Spragg, a care worker and grandmother from Cardiff, told police she believed the McCanns were involved in the kidnap of their daughter.
She started communicating online with Wandelt after watching her videos in which she presented ‘evidence’ that she was Madeleine, before arranging to take her to the McCanns’ house to demand a DNA test, where she shouted at Mrs McCann, accusing her of not wanting to find her daughter.
Mrs Justice Cutts said Spragg was ‘intimately involved with Ms Wandelt’ and was ‘verbally aggressive’ during the confrontation at the McCanns’ Leicestershire home.
She said she accepted that Wandelt, who was abused by her step-grandfather aged nine, had a difficult childhood but that did not justify the way she behaved.
Mrs Justice Cutts said her ‘constant pestering, badgering and eventually attendance at their home address on a dark evening in December was unwarranted, unkind, and as the jury have now found, criminal’.
Madeleine was three-years-old when she vanished during a family holiday to The Algarve in May 2007
The trial heard Wandelt was aided and encouraged by more than a million online followers – many of whom believe the McCanns were involved in the disappearance of their daughter
She added: ‘They (the McCanns) were entitled to refuse to engage with you, particularly in the sad circumstances in which they live with the disappearance of Madeleine.’
The judge said Wandelt believed she was the victim. She paused before telling her: ‘You are not.’ The court heard a DNA comparison between Wandelt and Madeleine, from a pillow case at her Leicestershire home, proved conclusively that Wandelt was not her. But asked in court whether she still thought she was the girl who went missing, aged three, from the Portuguese resort of Praia de Luz in 2007, Wandelt replied: ‘I do believe I’m her.’
The court heard Wandelt called and messaged Mrs McCann more than 60 times on April 13 last year and wrote her a letter addressed ‘Mom’, signing it ‘Madeleine’.
She also contacted the couple’s twins, Sean and Amelie, their friends and other family members and turned up at a vigil for Madeleine demanding a DNA test.
Jurors were told that, from 2022, Wandelt began to make attempts ‘to persuade anybody who was prepared to listen that she was Madeleine McCann’, believing she had been abducted and brought up by a couple who were not her real parents.
She utilised social media with twin accounts on Instagram and TikTok, both called @iammadeleinemccann where she uploaded ‘evidence’ to support her claims, along with pictures comparing her face with Madeleine’s and that of her siblings and parents.
Wandelt also claimed to have memories of growing up in the McCann household, and particularly distressing, memories of being abducted, which she also shared online.
She has appeared on various YouTube shows discussing her claims and incredibly gave an interview from prison while awaiting trial. As a result, prosecutors took the highly unusual step of attempting to ban all reporting of the trial in part due to Wandelt’s ‘significant social media platform’.
Karen Spragg, 61, leaving Leicester Crown Court. She was acquitted of stalking and harassment but also handed the same restraining order after the judge said Spragg ‘enjoyed the drama’ and supported Wandelt while ‘indulging in her conspiracy theories’.
Kate and Gerry McCann added that they hope Wandelt ‘will receive the appropriate care and support she needs and any vulnerability will not be exploited by others’
The jury was told at the outset of the trial that the disappearance of Madeleine brought ‘many tragic consequences’ for her parents, including their ‘inability to escape the glare of publicity that came with that tragedy’.
Mr and Mrs McCann, who both gave evidence from behind a screen at the trial, said: ‘Despite the jury’s guilty verdict of harassment, we take no pleasure in the result. Like most people, we did not want to go through a court process and only wanted the harassment to stop.
‘The decision to prosecute was taken by the Crown Prosecution Service, based on the evidence gathered by the police.
‘We hope Ms Wandelt will receive the appropriate care and support she needs and any vulnerability will not be exploited by others. If anyone has new evidence relating to Madeleine’s disappearance, please pass this on to the police.’
