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To her legion of followers, it did not matter that she was born in Poland nearly two years before Madeleine was born, in Leicester. Or that a DNA test carried out by police confirmed she had no connection to the three-year-old, who disappeared in Portugal in 2007. Wandelt’s fantastical claims that she had been abducted by a paedophile in Praia da Luz and trafficked to Poland were embraced by armchair detectives who followed every turn of her campaign against Madeleine’s family with an almost religious fervour. The 24-year-old ignored desperate pleadings from her boyfriend who told her “hundreds of times” that she was not Madeleine, according to the Telegraph. Instead, she manipulated the findings of a DNA report about her case and hired a British publicist to help her hoodwink the public with baseless claims of police cover-ups and doctored evidence. At the peak of her campaign, -Wandelt had amassed one million followers on Instagram. But her near three-year-long mission, from June 2022 to February 2025, ended in the dock at Leicester Crown Court yesterday. She was found guilty of harassing Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, after a lengthy trial. She was found not guilty of stalking them. In September last year, riding high on a wave of publicity from her appearances on Dr Phil – America’s then second highest-rated daytime show – and BBC News, and on a string of true-crime podcasts, Wandelt anonymously contacted Dr Monte Miller, a forensics expert in -California, in an attempt to authenticate her claims. Email exchanges presented by the prosecution show that Wandelt sent Dr Miller a mixture of DNA, which contained a sample of her own DNA and another that she believed to be Madeleine’s. Dr Miller replied that the evidence was a mix of three people’s DNA, but conceded that it matched “fairly well” to her own. He said “it may be possible” that Wandelt was related to one or more of the people within the DNA evidence sample, but that he required further information, such as a family ancestry, to disclose this. Equipped with this report, Wandelt convinced Surjit Singh Clair, a British publicist who claims to have broken some of Fleet Street’s biggest crime stories, to take her on as a client. He had no qualms taking her on, saying she came across as “very intelligent” and “didn’t seem damaged”. Clair, who was jailed for three years in 2001 for perverting the court of justice and for attempting to obtain money under false pretences by trying to sell a fabricated story to a newspaper for £6,000 (€6,820), presented himself as a “competent, respected publisher”, the court heard. He directed Wandelt’s social media campaign, telling her “exactly how and when” to post on Instagram. He is further alleged to have supported her claims she was the same person as the English girl who vanished as a toddler. In a text message, presented by the prosecution to jurors, Clair allegedly said: “You are Madeleine McCann.” Clair disputed having said this and said that, if the message existed, “it has been taken out of context”. Jurors heard how Wandelt beseeched Clair to procure Gerry and Kate McCann’s DNA on her behalf. Clair rejected this request after several weeks, saying it was “impossible to do so” and allegedly remarked “Gerry doesn’t leave any DNA on bottles he drinks from”. Clair continued to represent Wandelt after her arrest on February 19 during her third attempt to confront the -McCanns in person in their home village in Leicester. He dropped her as a client several months later when she phoned him from inside HM Peterborough, where she was being held on remand, to say that a DNA test carried out by police from Operation Grange, the taskforce investigating Madeleine’s disappearance, proved she was not the missing child. Her defence barrister described her as a sad and pathetic young woman who was confused, but not malicious Between June 2022 and last February, Wandelt “tormented” the McCanns in a “cruel and unforgiving” campaign that involved up to 60 phone calls a day and culminated in her accosting the couple at their home. Tom Price KC, her defence barrister, described her as a “sad and pathetic young woman” who was “confused”, but not malicious. Wandelt contacted a total of 23 different organisations in the UK, Poland and Portugal, including police and Interpol, missing persons charities and the Find Madeleine website. By her side was Karen Spragg, a 61-year-old woman from Cardiff who was a “forthright supporter” of the conspiracy theory that Madeleine’s parents were involved in her disappearance. She became Wandelt’s closest confidante. On May 3 last year, Wandelt flew to the UK and tried to meet the McCanns at the annual vigil held for their daughter in Rothley, the family’s home village, but the McCanns had decided not to attend. Undeterred, Wandelt approached Kate McCann’s great-aunt, Janet Kennedy, and gave her a letter containing her claims she was Madeleine, which she asked to be passed on to Ms McCann. That same day, Wandelt left a bottle of wine and a note on the family’s doorstep begging the McCanns to take a DNA test to establish that they were her biological parents. Wandelt also targeted Madeleine’s twin siblings, Sean and Amelie McCann, aged 20. Wandelt bombarded Amelie over social media with images that had been digitally manipulated to make her resemble Amelie’s sister. She told Amelie that hypnosis sessions had unlocked forgotten memories of her “feeding Sean as a baby” and “playing ring a roses with other children”. In one message to Amelie, Wandelt said: “I will do whatever is needed to prove my identity”. She made good on her threat. On the evening of December 7, Spragg, who had picked Wandelt up in her car from East Midlands Airport the day before, drove them both to the home of the McCanns. Spragg could not contain her excitement. At 7.15pm she texted a friend “We are sat outside the mccanns [sic] home waiting for them to come home. We are sat like private investigators with car lights out…never thought I would be stalking the mcaans [sic].” Ms McCann arrived home first. When Wandelt spotted her getting out of her car, she ran up to her and accosted her with demands to take a DNA test. Ms McCann’s threats to call the police if they did not leave immediately did nothing to deter them. Despite Wandelt’s best attempts to stop her from doing so, Ms McCann managed to get herself inside the “sanctuary of her house” and phoned her husband for help as Wandelt and Spragg banged on the front door. Dear Mum (Kate), I think that inside [your] heart you believe and know who I am and I am your daughter When Mr McCann arrived, the pair shouted at him with their demands for a DNA test and Wandelt tried, unsuccessfully, to thrust a letter into his hands. The following day, the pair returned and posted a letter through the letterbox. It was addressed “Dear Mum (Kate)”. Wandelt wrote: “I think that inside you [sic] heart you believe and know who I am and I am your daughter. “I don’t understand why you don’t want to do a DNA test with me.” It was signed “Lots of Love Madeleine M X”. The McCanns were left so distressed that they installed a panic button in their house. The pair made their third and final attempt to stalk the McCanns this year. Wandelt arrived at Bristol Airport on February 19 on a flight from Poland paid for by Spragg. Police had been tipped off over her arrival and arrested Wandelt when she disembarked. Spragg, who was sitting in her car nearby, was arrested shortly after. News that they had been arrested quickly spread among Wandelt’s followers and a Facebook group called Free Julia Wandelt was set up the following day. By the time of the pair’s conviction, the group had reached 4,400 followers. Members parroted Wandelt’s claims, shared pictures of Wandelt and Madeleine side-by-side, and posted conspiracy theories about the case. Madeleine McCann went missing aged three from her bed inside her family’s holiday apartment in Praia Da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. Her parents, who were dining with friends at a restaurant nearby, had taken it in turns to check on their three children before Ms McCann found Maddie’s bed empty. Maddie’s younger twin siblings had been left undisturbed. The prime suspect in her disappearance, Christian Brueckner, was released from Sehnde prison in northern Germany in September after serving a seven-year sentence for raping a pensioner. There has not been enough evidence to charge him, and Brueckner has consistently denied involvement in -Madeleine’s disappearance. Wandelt was born on August 28, 2001, and was raised by her mother, Dorota Wandelt-Cholewinski, and her step-father, Piotr Cholewinski. As a teenager growing up in the industrial heartland of Poland, she had aspirations of becoming a model or a singer. She had a troubled upbringing in her home city of Wroclaw – one that was marred by claims of sexual abuse and mental health problems. Wandelt later moved out of the family’s house to live with her boyfriend, Adam Masterniak. Academically gifted, in 2023 she enrolled at university to study criminology with the aim of working as an X-ray technician. But, within a year, Wandelt had dropped out of full-time education and became a recluse, leaving her flat only to walk her dog or buy groceries. I just want peace, for all of this to be over By this point, she had disowned her parents, who had repeatedly provided her with access to mental health treatment and therapists. Police and ambulances were regularly called to the building by neighbours who reported overhearing Wandelt screaming in the middle of the night. Her attempts to find full-time work as a model and a singer came to nothing. She is believed to have supported herself by teaching English three hours a day and, at one point, working as an explicit OnlyFans performer. Mr Masterniak told the Telegraph that her unbearable fixation with the case drove him to try to end the relationship. Speaking from the doorstep of their shared flat, he said: “I’m simply ashamed. When Julia started claiming she was the missing child of the McCann family, I told her hundreds of times that she wasn’t, that she had made it all up. “I didn’t want to live with Julia anymore. I wanted it all to end. “Her mother didn’t want to help her or take her in, so Julia kept coming back here. I wanted it to stop but there was no one who could help. Now I just want peace, for all of this to be over.” Wandelt’s mother declined to comment on her daughter’s case when contacted by the Telegraph. When the Telegraph contacted other members of the family, they did not reply. In an earlier statement, Wandelt’s family wholeheartedly denied that their daughter was Madeleine. Wandelt was sentenced to six months in prison. As she has been in custody since February, she has already served the time.
