A woman accused of stalking the McCanns turned up at their family home and signed a letter addressed to them as Madeleine, a court has heard.
Jurors heard that Julia Wandelt, 24, from Lubin in south-west Poland, who claimed to be the missing girl, with her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, also discussed stealing bags of rubbish from the family’s home to get DNA samples.
Wandelt and Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.
Continuing the prosecution’s opening at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday, Michael Duck KC said Mrs McCann was “unnerved” when they both waited outside her home last year, were “banging on the door” and Wandelt “tried to force a letter” into Mr McCann’s hand.
Mr Duck told the jury: “She told Julia Wandelt and Karen Spragg they were causing distress and they should leave the property.
“Whatever they suggest are their beliefs, they do not afford someone the right to lie in wait for their targets, outside their own home, and enforce their will upon them. That is precisely what happened.”
Mr Duck said when Mrs McCann managed to get into her house, she recalls Wandelt try to stop her closing the door.
The court heard that in a letter left at the home the next day, Wandelt wrote: “Dear mum (Kate), I’m so sorry for causing you so much distress.
“I felt a connection to you. I don’t like to see you being upset. All I want is to find out the truth. Yesterday I heard a lot of care and love in your voice.”
She signed the note “Lots of love, Madeleine”, the court heard.
The jury heard how Wandelt intended to approach Mr and Mrs McCann during an annual vigil held in the family’s home village of Rothley, Leicestershire, in May last year.
When she found out the McCanns were not there, it was “clearly a disappointment” to Wandelt but she instead approached the village priest and Mrs McCann’s aunt, who she gave a letter to, Mr Duck said.
The prosecutor said: “Until this date, the attempts by Julia Wandelt had been on the telephone or social media. That situation changed, and changed quite starkly, in May 2024 because Julia Wandelt was plainly aware that this vigil was going to take place.”
The following day, the McCanns found a note on their doorstep, asking them to read the letter she gave to Mrs McCann’s aunt and to take a DNA test.
The note said: “To Kate McCann and Gerry McCann, I don’t know where to start. Been a lot of emotions for me. I thought I would see you today and we would talk but it didn’t happen.
“I need your help. My childhood memories are lost and those I remember are painful. I presume I might be your missing daughter.”
The note also said: “Could you help me to do a DNA test.”
After Wandelt claimed she was the missing girl at Charing Cross police station that same day, the court heard that an officer from Operation Grange, the ongoing investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, spoke to Wandelt and “explained to her in the clearest terms that she was not Madeleine McCann”, and told her she should stop contacting the police with that claim.
The court heard that Wandelt told police she had “clear memories” of the night Madeleine disappeared, including that “someone gave me to the person who took me”, and she described the appearance of a man.
Wandelt alleged that the McCanns’ “lack of empathy, leads me to believe that they already know the truth, and that they might have been involved in the planned kidnapping and abduction”, the court heard.
Mr Duck told the jury: “None of that information, of course, can be true.”
The jury heard that Wandelt called and emailed David Payne, who had been with the McCanns on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, and on one occasion asked him about a pink toy that the missing girl may have had.
Mr Duck said that in 2024 Spragg “began to take an active role in peddling Julia Wandelt’s case” and the pair “were very much operating as a team”.
Mr Duck continued: “One of the readily anticipated consequences of making claims to be Madeleine McCann is that it will create significant media interest and also the interest of those who choose to perpetuate the false allegations which Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has generated.
“Karen Spragg, who sits in the dock with Julia Wandelt, was one such person.
“It is clear … that Karen Spragg was a forthright supporter of the conspiracy theory that Kate McCann and Gerry McCann were in some way involved in the disappearance of their daughter, despite the unequivocal evidence to the contrary.”
Mr Duck said Spragg was “very much adopting the sentiments of Julia Wandelt” and messages between the pair suggested they even considered going through bins at the McCanns’ home and “stealing the garbage” to take to a hotel, but they did not go through with the plan.
The prosecutor said: “Anybody whose behaviour in that way towards those individuals, knowing the background of the circumstances, knew the distress they were going to cause.”
Madeleine’s disappearance from Portugal’s Algarve in 2007 remains unsolved.
The trial will continue on Wednesday.
