Madeleine McCann campaigner ‘feared alleged stalker could affect investigation’

An American woman who helps a campaign to find Madeleine McCann told a court she feared people would stop looking for the missing girl after an alleged stalker claimed to be her.

Jurors heard that Polish national Julia Wandelt, 24, “bombarded” the email address on the Find Madeleine campaign website with requests for a DNA test, but Kate and Gerry McCann showed her “a lot of grace”.

Stacy Gorman, who lives in Washington DC, in the US, gave evidence from the witness box at Leicester Crown Court on Monday, and said she joined a group called Helping to Find Madeleine a “couple of days” after the three-year-old went missing in May 2007.

The jury heard Ms Gorman, who has a background in web and communications, started working for the official campaign later that year and monitored its email inbox from about 2015.

Questioned about the emails from Wandelt, which started in June 2022, Ms Gorman said: “When it first started I felt very sympathetic, and so did Gerry and Kate. They showed her a lot of grace.

“As time went on, I became concerned because she had a big following on social media.

“Julia’s contact was not aggressive but a lot of the other people were extremely aggressive. They were talking about conspiracy theories.”

Speaking about whether Wandelt’s actions may affect the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, Ms Gorman said: “Yes. If people thought Julia was found, or that Julia was Madeleine, people would stop looking for Madeleine.

“It was in the news too, a lot of press.”

It is alleged that Wandelt peddled the myth that she was Madeleine, who went missing during a family holiday in Portugal, while stalking Kate and Gerry McCann, by sending emails, making phone calls and turning up at their home between June 2022 and February this year.

The court heard Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, emailed the Find Madeleine website “claiming to be Madeleine”.

It was initially forwarded by Ms Gorman to Operation Grange, the ongoing Metropolitan Police investigation into the girl’s disappearance.

An officer in the investigation told Ms Gorman that Wandelt had been ruled out, the court heard.

When asked how often Wandelt would send emails to the campaign, Ms Gorman described them as “persistent” and “frequent”.

She said: “It was multiple a day, it was a whole week period, a lot. It was pretty bad for a whole week.”

Ms Gorman said it “could be every month” that the inbox receives emails from people claiming to be the girl, but she does not forward them to Mr and Mrs McCann.

Ms Gorman said the contact from Wandelt “died down” at about the time she went on a talk show in America, but then started again last summer when she was “demanding a DNA test”.

Jurors heard that one of the emails sent to the campaign by Wandelt said: “Dear Kate and Gerry, if you are reading this, help me please. Give me the peace I’m looking for. Your silence is devastating to me.

“The truth will set all of us free. You know it’s me. Please don’t be scared. I know it’s also devastating for you. I know I’m Madeleine.”

In another email, Wandelt referred to her visit to the McCanns’ family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, in December last year, and said: “Kate, you were crying when we met, so you definitely can feel some emotions towards me.”

Wandelt and her co-defendant, Karen Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny one count of stalking.

The trial continues.