Alleged McCann stalker tells court she still questions her identity after abuse

The alleged stalker of Madeleine McCann’s family has told her trial that she is still questioning her identity after claiming to be the missing girl.

Julia Wandelt, 24, told the court that she had limited memories of her childhood and “could only remember abuse” after experiences with her step-grandfather.

Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, denied claiming to be Madeleine for attention or financial gain, saying she “could not be able to heal from my trauma if I never fully know who I am”.

Prosecutors allege Wandelt peddled the myth she was Madeleine, who went missing aged three during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007, while stalking Kate and Gerry McCann by sending emails, making phone calls and turning up at their address.

Giving evidence from the witness box at Leicester Crown Court on Monday, Wandelt told the court about an interaction she had with a psychologist which made her question her life.

Wandelt told jurors: “She made me reflect on my life more and think about everything that happened. I realised I only remember abuse. My friends, they could remember things.

“I started with asking questions because I just could not believe there was nothing else in the story of what happened to me.

“I started asking my parents about everything. What are your blood groups? Is there anything else happened to me you don’t tell me about?”

Wandelt’s barrister Tom Price KC asked her if she still questions her identity.

She replied: “Yes, I do.”

Wandelt told the court she had some memories starting at age eight or nine and said her parents had a different appearance from her, with dark hair and eyes.

She said she asked her parents for a DNA test many times but they refused, adding: “It made me feel a bit surprised because I didn’t expect them to refuse, especially because at that time I still dealt with a lot of emotional problems.”

Wandelt told the court she self-harmed and attempted suicide after she was abused as a child by her step-grandfather.

She said there had been criminal proceedings against him, adding: “I was told at the end he admitted his guilt but my grandmother still did not believe me.”

Wandelt told the court a sketch of a suspect in the Madeleine case looked “quite similar to the person who abused me” and had the same surname, which she said was a “big factor”.

She added that she has a similar mark on her eye to Madeleine.

Wandelt said she was in hospital in the summer of 2022 when she spoke to her father, who told her the man who abused her had “been involved in kidnapping” so she searched databases for missing people.

“Did you find anyone who matched you?” Mr Price asked.

She said: “There were not actually a lot of people my age or around my age, but that is how I found Madeleine.”

Questioned whether she claimed to be Madeleine for attention or financial gain, Wandelt said: “No.”

She told the court she did not know how big the Madeleine McCann story was before she read about the case.

Asked by Mr Price what her motivation was, Wandelt replied: “I just wanted to find out who I am. I could not be able to heal from my trauma if I never fully know who I am, what happened to me and if my parents are my parents.”

When she was asked to confirm her name at the start of her evidence, Wandelt said: “Yes, according to court documents my full name is Julia Wandelt.”

Wandelt and her co-defendant, Karen Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny one count of stalking between June 2022 and February this year.

The trial continues.