Gerry McCann criticises alleged stalker for damaging efforts to find Madeleine

An emotional Gerry McCann has told a jury that an “incessant” alleged stalker who claims to be Madeleine McCann has damaged efforts to find his missing daughter.

Mr McCann and Madeleine’s mother Kate both gave evidence from behind a curtain as they spoke of their distress and anger at the actions of Polish national Julia Wandelt and Karen Spragg, who both deny causing serious alarm.

Wandelt, 24, hysterically sobbed and shouted “Why are you doing this to me?” after Mrs McCann spoke of her distress at being confronted by the pair outside her home in Leicestershire in December last year.

Prosecutors allege Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, peddled the myth that she was Madeleine – who went missing in Portugal in 2007 – while stalking her parents by sending emails, making phone calls and turning up at their address.

Giving evidence after his wife’s testimony to Leicester Crown Court on Wednesday, Mr McCann was asked by the prosecutor what impact the false claim made by, and communications sent by, Wandelt had had on him.

Mr McCann answered: “Well, we know she’s not our daughter. It has many effects – we don’t know what happened to Madeleine. There’s no evidence to say she’s dead.

“We really hope, and we know it’s only a glimmer, that Madeleine is alive.

“When so many people claim to be our missing daughter, it inevitably pulls your heartstrings, but there is a wider effect that is more damaging.”

Mr McCann said there were people that “crazily” believe conspiracy theories, including that he and his wife Kate do not want to find their missing daughter.

He added: “That’s detrimental to any existing investigation and obviously we have always put that (the inquiry) first.”

Earlier, Mrs McCann told the jury that when Wandelt and Spragg, aged 61 and of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, came to her home address on December 7 last year, they “did not give any indication” they would hurt her.

She added that she did not know whether Wandelt had been crying when she turned up at her family home, but said the Polish national had been “pleading” and “asking about DNA tests again”.

Tom Price KC, defending Wandelt, suggested the women left “a short time after” Mr McCann got home.

Mrs McCann said: “Not immediately, but yes. Certainly not half an hour or anything.”

Asked if they made her think they would hurt her, Mrs McCann said: “No, they did not give me any indication of that.”

Mrs McCann said that she and her husband “waited for a while, calmed down a bit” before they went out that evening.

Questioned about Wandelt’s claims to be her daughter and her requests for a DNA test, Mrs McCann said: “I think it was getting to me so much that a little bit of my brain was saying ‘what if?’

“Having seen a photo of her, she’s Polish… it doesn’t make sense.”

Mrs McCann added: “I can’t say what Madeleine looks like now, but if I saw a photo of her, I would recognise her.”

She told the court she had a “little niggle” about doing a DNA test because Wandelt has been “so incessant”.

As the prosecution finished asking Mrs McCann questions, Wandelt sobbed loudly and shouted “Why are you doing this to me?”

Officers escorted her out of the dock at Leicester Crown Court as she continued to uncontrollably cry.

Mr McCann told the court that his wife was “obviously very distressed” because of the unwanted calls.

Asked by prosecutor Michael Duck KC about one occasion, possibly in the summer of last year, where he took hold of the phone in his kitchen and spoke to the caller, Mr McCann said: “Kate was upset. I was getting frustrated and angry that these calls were coming.

“The phone went and I picked it up and answered it. I said ‘You’re not Madeleine, please stop calling’ and then hung up very, very quickly.

“I made it very clear these were unwanted calls. To be honest, it was a bit of a blur.”

Mr McCann added that there were three reasons why he and his wife did not do a DNA test, as requested by Wandelt.

He said: “It’s very clear. First of all, we did not believe she was Madeleine.

“Secondly, we had been reassured by the Metropolitan Police that following inquiries undertaken in Poland… she was definitely not Madeleine.

“Thirdly, it is not our responsibility to do a DNA test. That’s a matter for the investigator forces.”

He added: “I was aware Julia had supporters and people supporting her claim which we knew not to be true.”

Mr McCann said he wanted to protect Madeleine’s siblings from “nasty stuff online”.

He told the jury: “As a parent you try and protect your children and we know social media can be really damaging. All the horrible things that have been written about us.

“The nasty stuff online, obviously we want to protect them from that.”

Both defendants deny one count of stalking.

The trial continues.