A Polish woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann has been found guilty of harassing the missing girl’s parents by turning up at their home and sending sinister letters and messages repeatedly begging for a DNA test.
Julia Wandelt, 24, put her hands to her face when jurors returned a guilty verdict for the harassment of Kate and Gerry McCann on Friday (7 November), but a not guilty verdict for a charge of stalking.
A five-week trial at Leicester Crown Court heard Wandelt claimed to have memories, induced by hypnosis sessions, of being abducted and of living with the McCanns as a child, including feeding Madeleine’s younger brother Sean and playing ring-a-ring-a-roses.
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Jurors heard that Wandelt, who had an emotional outburst while Mrs McCann gave evidence against her, tried to persuade 'anybody prepared to listen' that she was Madeleine, and that she had been kidnapped from Portugal and abused with other girls in Poland.
Wandelt called and messaged Mrs McCann more than 60 times in one day on April 13 last year, claiming to have a memory of the mother stroking her head and saying she would find her before the abduction.
Her co-defendant, Karen Spragg, was found not guilty of stalking and harassment.
It has now been 18 years since the three-year-old went missing while holidaying with her family in Portugal back in 2007.
Madeleine was sleeping in her Praia da Luz hotel apartment alongside her younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, while her parents Kate and Gerry McCann enjoyed a dinner at the Ocean Club restaurant on the night she vanished.
The restaurant they visited was around 100 yards from the bedroom.
Only when returning to the two-bedroom apartment at around 10:00 pm did Madeleine's mum discover the youngster was missing.
Topics: UK News, World News, News, Crime, Madeleine McCann
Rhiannon Ingle