Alleged Stalker Asked: 'But Suppose I Could Be Madeleine?'
A woman accused with pursuing Kate McCann allegedly deposited her a phone message which posed: "imagine I am Madeleine?"
Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, who a jury heard has consistently claimed she was the vanished Madeleine McCann, and Karen Spragg are on trial accused with pursuing Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February the current year.
On Monday, the court learned communication data and evidence obtained from phones documented Ms Wandelt repeatedly demanding Madeleine's mother for a biological test over the past two years.
Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 - at the age of three during a vacation in Portugal - is among the most widely reported missing child cases and is still unresolved.
'I Don't Want Money'
One recorded message, shared in court, documented Ms Wandelt declaring: "I know I'm overweight and not pretty like Madeleine was, but I believe what I know."
While another instance of Ms Wandelt's one-way conversations with Mrs McCann's voicemail stated: "Imagine there is a small chance that I'm her? What then? Isn't that important for you?"
"I don't want money, I have a living here in Poland, I just want to know," the message continued.
The jury was told that via emails, text messages and calls, Ms Wandelt requested a DNA test, forwarded early photographs to her phone in a attempt to display a resemblance to Mrs McCann's disappeared daughter, and asserted to have "memories" from a childhood with the McCanns.
An intelligence analyst, a data specialist with Leicestershire Police who gathered the evidence, informed the court there "seemed to lack any responses" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt also contacted close associates of the McCanns, according to the phone records.
On October 9th, 2024, Mr McCann answered a communication from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, stating she had "incorrect contact information."
On that occasion Ms Wandelt left a message on Mrs McCann's voicemail stating "I will continue and I will prove my claim."
The court heard Mrs Spragg developed a association online with Ms Wandelt before joining her on a visit to the McCanns' property in the county in December 2024.
Call logs demonstrated Mrs Spragg had communicated via WhatsApp to Mrs McCann to express the news outlets had portrayed Ms Wandelt as "mentally unstable" but that she deserved to be considered genuine in the period preceding the visit to Rothley, Leicestershire, in last December.
The court was told message exchanges between the two defendants, in last November, planning attempting to get Mrs McCann's DNA samples from her bins or from cutlery at a eating establishment.
"We need to assert ourselves," Mrs Spragg told Ms Wandelt.
On the occasion of the trip to their home, Mrs Spragg dispatched a message which stated: "We are sitting adjacent to the McCanns' home with our lights out like private investigators. I desired to do this with someone else I didn't imagine I would be involved in this with the McCanns."
The proceedings ongoing.
