‘I’m a 70% DNA match for missing Maddie, you can’t dispute the facts,’ woman accused of stalking Kate McCann says in messages played to court

A Polish woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann said her DNA was an almost 70 per cent ‘match’ in messages she sent to the missing girl’s mother.

Julia Wandelt told Kate McCann: ‘You are my mother, that’s science no one can deny,’ a court heard on Monday.

She added: ‘I’m not a fraudster, I’m your daughter.’

Wandelt, 24, from Lubin in south-west Poland, is accused of stalking Ms McCann and her husband Gerry between June 2022 and February 2025, along with his ‘supporter’ Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff.

Leicester Crown Court heard Wandelt sent dozens of text messages to Ms McCann’s phone and left several voicemails, and both women turned up at the McCanns’ home demanding DNA tests.

Yesterday, jurors played several months of voicemails from Wandelt on Ms McCann’s phone in which he claimed Madeleine was not dead.

They also heard that he had sent messages claiming that his DNA was a 69.23 per cent match with ‘crime scene’ samples posted online about Madeleine’s disappearance, which were in Portuguese police files.

In his messages, he urged Ms McCann to agree to an ‘official’ DNA test to ‘prove’ she is his daughter.

Wandelt said he would set up a GoFundMe page to pay for the test and explained the differences between his and Madeleine’s appearance, saying “she was ugly and fat because of the medication I was given”, jurors heard.

In the voicemails, Wandelt speaks with a strong Polish accent and gets emotional at times.

He begs Ms McCann for a DNA test, says she is his daughter and claims he remembers trying to shout ‘mummy and daddy’ the night she was kidnapped.

Jurors were also told that on one occasion Wandelt sent a message every two seconds and five messages were sent to Ms McCann’s mobile phone in seven seconds.

In a harrowing message, she claimed she was raped on May 12 last year, on Madeleine’s birthday.

Wandelt began to cry loudly and left the defendant when another message he had sent to Ms McCann about being ‘abused’ was read to the court.

In her message she wrote: ‘I have been raped and abused underground, I have seen other children being abused so badly, you can stop the torment, you can help me.’

He continued: ‘If you don’t want me to get depressed, talk to me. ‘I know that science cannot lie, and I know that I am your daughter.’

In an earlier message he said: ‘I was trying to shout at my mum and dad, I couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t shout, I couldn’t do anything.’

In another voicemail he asked Ms McCann: ‘What if it was me? I know you probably think Madeleine is dead. But not him. I truly believe I am him.

‘Help me. Don’t think Madeleine is dead. This is a chance. Please, I’m begging you.

‘The police don’t want to help me, they don’t want to help Madeleine. They are all corrupt. I promise you, I will prove who I am because I know you love Madeleine.’

They are accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann, both 57, between 2022 and 2025

In another message he said: ‘You probably believe that Madeleine is no longer alive. What if I carve? What if there’s a small chance that I could be that?’

The court previously heard Wandelt called and texted Kate McCann more than 60 times in a single day in April last year; this included his alleged memories of the missing girl’s abduction.

The court heard Wandelt said in a message to Ms McCann: ‘I cry when I listen to your voice or see you.

‘You are the mother. You know you’re mine ‘You know I’m not crazy.’

In another message, he described ‘one instance I can remember’ of a barbecue with other children when he was younger and claimed he asked Ms McCann if he could have a ball.

The message read: ‘I cry when I hear your voice. ‘I feel this connection, I don’t know how to explain it.’

He added: ‘I always thought you were innocent. I feel in my heart that you don’t want this to happen. I know people judge you and me too.

‘I know you’ve probably wrapped up this chapter of your life, closed it, and I know you probably don’t want to open it again, but I always want to hear your voice.’

The jury heard that Wandelt texted Ms McCann at 1am saying: ‘I don’t understand why you don’t want to do a DNA test.’

On one occasion, Mr. McCann answered his wife’s phone and told Wandelt that the number was wrong.

In the voicemail below, Wandelt said: ‘I know it’s you, Gerry. You answered the call. Why is it so difficult to answer the call and talk to me?

‘I didn’t do anything wrong. If you’re looking for Madeleine, you should take a test with me.’

Another message sent to Ms McCann read: ‘Hi I’m Julia, I think I’m your daughter Madeleine. I have never lied… I beg of you, please stop blocking my number.’

In one text message she said: ‘I beg you you are my real mother, give me the chance to prove it.’

In her voicemail she said: ‘I was raped on my birthday on 12 May 2023, today is Madeleine’s birthday. I need you please. You are the mother and you know that it is me.’

He stated that he contacted the police in England, Portugal and Poland and said, ‘I don’t know what else I can do.’

Later on September 29, he claimed to have shared some DNA with Madeleine by comparing her profile with one of Portuguese police files.

‘It’s getting really serious,’ he said.

‘I know I’m ugly and fat, but that’s because of the drugs I’ve been given,’ she continued.

The court heard Spragg sent Ms McCann an email in which he claimed Wandelt’s DNA was a match.

He wrote: ‘Julia is not crazy, she is sane. Julia has proof of that.”

The court then heard the two women planned to confront Ms McCann again and Wandelt suggested they go to the hospital where she worked.

In a message to Spragg he said: ‘Can we meet in the East Midlands and go to Leicester… go to the hospital where he works? ‘I just need to see him, I need to get him to look at me and talk to me and I need your help but I understand if you don’t want it.’

Spragg replied: ‘I can do it on Monday’ and Wandelt said: ‘OK that sounds great’.

They were arrested at Bristol airport in February.

The trial continues.