Alleged Harasser Asked: 'However Suppose I Could Be Madeleine?'
A female accused with pursuing Kate McCann apparently recorded her a recorded message which posed: "what if I am Madeleine?"
Julia Wandelt, 24, who court testimony revealed has persistently declared she was the missing Madeleine McCann, and Karen Spragg are on trial accused with stalking Kate and Gerry McCann from June 2022 and February 2025.
On Monday, the court was told phone records and information obtained from phones logged Ms Wandelt repeatedly demanding Madeleine's mother for a DNA test throughout 2023 and 2024.
Madeleine's vanishing in 2007 - when she was three years old during a vacation in Portugal - is one of the most publicized child disappearance cases and remains unsolved.
'I Am Not Seeking Money'
A separate recorded message, shared in court, recorded Ms Wandelt declaring: "I know I'm overweight and unattractive like Madeleine was, but I feel what I feel."
While a separate message of Ms Wandelt's one-way conversations with Mrs McCann's recording stated: "Imagine there is a tiny probability that I am Madeleine? What then? Is that not crucial for you?"
"I don't want money, I possess a living here in Poland, I just want to know," the message continued.
The panel was informed that via electronic messages, mobile messages and calls, Ms Wandelt asked for a biological test, transmitted youth pictures to her phone in a bid to demonstrate a likeness to Mrs McCann's missing daughter, and stated to have "flashbacks" from a childhood with the McCanns.
Robert Jones, an investigator with Leicestershire Police who gathered the evidence, advised the court there "seemed to lack any answers" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt also communicated with acquaintances of the McCanns, as per the communication logs.
On 9 October 2024, Gerry McCann answered a call from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, declaring she had "the wrong phone."
During that incident Ms Wandelt recorded a voicemail on Mrs McCann's recording stating "I won't give up and I plan to establish my claim."
The court learned Mrs Spragg struck up a association through digital means with Ms Wandelt preceding joining her on a trip to the McCanns' property in the county in that winter.
Phone records revealed Mrs Spragg had communicated via WhatsApp to Mrs McCann to state the press had portrayed Ms Wandelt as "emotionally disturbed" but that she should be treated respectfully in the months leading up to the visit to the village, the county, in December 2024.
The court learned message exchanges between the two defendants, in November 2024, planning endeavoring to get Mrs McCann's DNA samples from her garbage or from utensils at a eating establishment.
"We need to assert ourselves," the co-defendant informed Ms Wandelt.
On the occasion of the appearance to their house, the defendant transmitted a communication which said: "We find ourselves positioned adjacent to the McCanns' residence with our vehicle dark like investigators. I desired to achieve this with another person I hadn't anticipated I would be doing that with the McCanns."
The trial proceeds.
