🔗 Share this article Secret DNA Test Verified Suspected Stalker Could Not Be Madeleine McCann, States Investigator A suspected stalker who asserted to be Madeleine McCann was ruled out after a secret DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the missing girl, police have revealed in court. Harassment Campaign Against McCann Family Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of a stalking campaign against the family of Madeleine, who vanished from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three. The woman from Poland flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and visited their home insisting on a DNA test, the court was earlier informed. Official Statements Providing testimony on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, explained he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said 13 people had previously claimed to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent. “If it became known in the media I had taken DNA from someone most likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’. “I genuinely have major concerns about approaching the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been highly distressing and hard for the family.” Forensic Analysis He said investigators had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of a lack of resemblance and that she was not the same age than Madeleine. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”. He stated: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.” Court Proceedings The court heard that in April this year, the officer saw Wandelt under arrest and informed her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.” Testimony indicated that during their conversation, Wandelt asked: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he responded: “Yes.” He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have manipulated the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would refuse to acknowledge she isn't Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.” Family Impact In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the McCanns were left scared and upset by their “disturbing” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to insist on a DNA test. The jury were told how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that they had eaten in. Wandelt and Spragg both deny one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.