Mother of missing Madeleine McCann gives evidence in stalking trial

The mother of Madeleine McCann has begun giving evidence in the trial of two women accused of stalking her and her family.

Kate McCann was shielded from the dock by a curtain at Leicester Crown Court as she entered the witness box at the trial of 24-year-old Polish national Julia Wandelt and 61-year-old Karen Spragg.

Jurors previously heard that Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, claimed to be the missing girl and had turned up at the McCanns’ family home and signed a letter addressed to them as Madeleine.

After the judge told jurors that the use of a screen was “entirely usual” and did not reflect on the defendants in any way, Mrs McCann began by saying she first became aware of the existence of Wandelt about three years ago.

Prosecutor Michael Duck KC then confirmed that the first attempts to contact the McCann family by Wandelt occurred on June 24 2022.

Mrs McCann said she became aware through officers working on Operation Grange, the Met Police inquiry into her daughter’s 2007 disappearance, that Wandelt believed herself to be Madeleine.

Mr Duck then read excerpts of messages Wandelt sent to Mrs McCann, in which the defendant said “let me prove I am not a liar” and “give me a chance, I don’t want money”.

After confirming that she could remember the messages “arriving” at her mobile phone, Mrs McCann was asked by Mr Duck if she had responded to the messages.

Mrs McCann answered: “No. I did not want to engage.”

Wandelt and Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.

Madeleine’s disappearance from Portugal’s Algarve in 2007 remains unsolved.

The trial continues.