Accused Stalker Questioned: 'However What If I Could Be Madeleine?'
A individual charged with pursuing Kate McCann allegedly recorded her a recorded message which posed: "imagine I am Madeleine?"
Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, who a jury heard has persistently declared she was the vanished Madeleine McCann, and her co-defendant are on trial charged with pursuing Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February 2025.
On Monday, Leicester Crown Court was told phone records and information retrieved from phones logged Ms Wandelt repeatedly demanding Madeleine's mother for a genetic test during the past two years.
Madeleine's vanishing in 2007 - when she was three years old during a trip in Portugal - is considered the most widely reported child disappearance cases and is still unresolved.
'I Do Not Need Money'
Another voicemail, shared in court, documented Ms Wandelt declaring: "I know I'm heavy and plain like Madeleine had been, but I know what I feel."
While a separate message of Ms Wandelt's recordings with Mrs McCann's answerphone said: "Suppose there is a small chance that I am she? What happens next? Wouldn't that be significant for you?"
"I do not need money, I maintain a life here in Poland, I simply desire to know," the message continued.
The tribunal was told that via electronic messages, mobile messages and phone calls, Ms Wandelt asked for a DNA test, transmitted childhood photos to her phone in a bid to display a likeness to Mrs McCann's vanished daughter, and claimed to have "recollections" from a youth with the McCanns.
Robert Jones, an investigator with Leicestershire Police who gathered the evidence, informed the court there "seemed to lack any responses" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt furthermore contacted close associates of the McCanns, based on the call data.
On 9 October 2024, Mr McCann answered a communication from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, declaring she had "incorrect contact information."
On that occasion Ms Wandelt left a message on Mrs McCann's voicemail declaring "I will continue and I intend to demonstrate my point."
The court heard the co-defendant struck up a relationship via internet with Ms Wandelt before accompanying her on a appearance to the McCanns' residence in Leicestershire in last December.
Phone records demonstrated Mrs Spragg had contacted using communication app to Mrs McCann to state the media had depicted Ms Wandelt as "mentally unstable" but that she ought to be considered genuine in the period before the appearance to Rothley, Leicestershire, in that winter.
The court heard correspondence between the two accused, in last November, planning attempting to get Mrs McCann's biological evidence from her trash or from cutlery at a restaurant.
"We must take action," the co-defendant told Ms Wandelt.
On the occasion of the appearance to their home, Mrs Spragg dispatched a text which stated: "We are positioned near the McCanns' residence with our vehicle dark like detectives. I had hoped to do this with Peter Andrew I never thought I would be engaged in this with the McCanns."
The proceedings proceeds.
