By Helen Rowe, AFP
Kate McCann and her husband, Gerry McCann, pictured in 2017. Photo: AFP / Pool / Joe Giddens
The mother of missing British girl Madeleine McCann on Wednesday (UK time) told a court of her distress at being stalked by a Polish woman claiming to be her lost daughter when she knew she was an imposter.
Kate McCann, giving evidence at the trial of Julia Wandelt for stalking her and her husband Gerry, also said the 24-year-old had attended a vigil last year for Madeleine.
Wandelt and Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff in Wales, are on trial accused of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann. They each deny the charge.
Prosecutor Michael Duck said Wandelt left messages on Kate McCann's mobile phone requesting her to "let me prove I am not a liar".
Asked if she had been willing to take a DNA test, as Wandelt had wanted, McCann said she almost came round to the idea just to rule it out.
Part of her started to think "what if" and she had a "little niggle" because of Wandelt's persistence, she said.
But she added: "I can't say what Madeleine looks like now, but if I saw a photo of her, I would recognise her."
On one occasion, Wandelt and Spragg visited the McCanns' home, taking Kate McCann by surprise in the dark and leaving her "distressed".
"She called me mum, I think, she was asking for a DNA test, 'why won't you do a DNA test?' and pleading with me," she said.
"I got a fright anyway. When I realised who it was I felt quite distressed."
Julia Wandelt Photo: Supplied: YouTube/Dr Phil
Bombarded with calls
"Then they followed me, I remember trying to close the door and Julia trying to put her hands out to stop me closing the door," she added.
A letter was later posted to the McCanns' home that read: "I'm so sorry for causing you so much distress, but when I saw you yesterday, my emotions were so strong," the court heard.
Wandelt allegedly bombarded the McCanns with emails and calls between June 2022 and February 2025.
At one point, Wandelt called Kate McCann 60 times in a single day, the prosecution said.
The McCann parents, both doctors, have been in the international limelight since Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared on May 3, 2007, from the apartment in the Praia da Luz seaside resort where the family was holidaying.
One of the emails received by the family from Wandelt read: "Hello I am writing to you because I think I could be Madeleine McCann."
As Kate McCann finished answering questions, Wandelt sobbed loudly and shouted "why are you doing this to me?" before being escorted out of the dock in tears by prison officers.
Gerry McCann told the jury he was "very confident" that Wandelt was not Madeleine.
He said he and his wife had not been at the vigil for Madeleine last May, adding he felt "absolute relief at not being confronted in a public space by her".
Prosecutors said there was "unequivocal scientific evidence" that Wandelt, who has claimed to have memories of Madeleine's childhood and disappearance, did not have any familial link to the McCanns.
Wandelt has previously claimed to be two other missing girls, prosecutors told the court.
The unsolved case of Madeleine's disappearance was thrust back into the spotlight last month after the top suspect was released from a German prison.
Christian Brueckner, who had finished a seven-year jail term for rape, was not charged in the case because of a lack of evidence, even though in 2020 German prosecutors named him as their top suspect.
-AFP
