Stalking of Madeleine McCann’s parents was ‘cruel and unforgiving’ – prosecutor

A Polish woman who falsely claimed to be Madeleine McCann is extremely manipulative and “tormented” the missing girl’s parents during a “cruel” stalking campaign, the prosecutor at her trial has claimed.

Julia Wandelt is accused of peddling the myth that she is Madeleine, who disappeared aged three in Portugal in 2007, while stalking Kate and Gerry McCann by sending emails, leaving voicemails and turning up at their home between June 2022 and February this year.

In his closing speech to jurors on Monday, Crown counsel Michael Duck KC accused Wandelt and co-defendant Karen Spragg of trying to “impose their will” on the McCann family despite knowing that their actions in relation to the couple were wrong.

Part of the alleged stalking had been “cruel and unforgiving”, Mr Duck said, telling Leicester Crown Court: “This case is about Julia Wandelt and Karen Spragg individually and subsequently as a team causing very significant distress to Kate and Gerry McCann.”

Accusing the defendants of “tormenting the McCanns over a period of time” which included a visit to their family home in December last year, Mr Duck said comments made by the defendants outside the property had demonstrated that Spragg “was not just a hanger-on but an enthusiastic encourager of what was taking place”.

Mr Duck continued: “What that brief passage (a transcript of comments made outside the house) does demonstrate is the reality in this case – it demonstrates that these two defendants simply wanted to impose their will on the McCanns.

“They cared only about their own agenda. They knew what they were doing was wrong.”

Commenting on an assertion made by Wandelt, 24, who is from Lubin in south-west Poland, that she did not believe distress had been caused, Mr Duck said: “She has to say that because that’s part of the very charge that she and Karen Spragg face.”

Inviting the jury to consider whether it was “blindingly obvious” that distress had been caused to the McCanns, Mr Duck told the court Wandelt and Spragg had co-authored a letter delivered to the family apologising to Mrs McCann “for causing you so much distress”.

Claiming the contents of the letter were a demonstration “of the fact that this was not going to stop”, Mr Duck told the jury: “You may take the view that ultimately she (Wandelt) is a lady of some considerable intelligence and is capable of being extremely manipulative.

“I am going to suggest, and I don’t apologise for it, that they each were manipulative and capable of being so and determined in the manner in which they achieved their aims.”

Mr Duck added that no evidence had ever been able to support Wandelt’s assertion that she was Madeleine.

“We may never know what her motives were,” the KC added.

“Julia Wandelt sought to persuade herself and others that she was Madeleine McCann,” Mr Duck continued. “But when you actually analyse the evidence, that’s based on nothing other than her own assertions.”

During Mr Duck’s speech, Wandelt briefly left the dock after becoming upset.

Wandelt told the court last week that she “didn’t care any more” when it was put to her that there was no scientific evidence to connect her to the McCanns.

Spragg has opted not to give evidence.

Trial judge Mrs Justice Cutts also gave the jury legal directions on Monday, instructing them to put aside feelings of sympathy they may have for the McCanns or the defendants, or for both.

“Emotion of any kind does not assist in deciding whether the allegation against each defendant is satisfactorily proved,” she said.

Wandelt and Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny one count of stalking.

The trial continues.