On October 14, 2025, Leicester Crown Court became the latest stage for a saga that has gripped and unsettled the family of Madeleine McCann for years. The court heard conclusive evidence that Julia Wandelt, a 24-year-old Polish woman who had claimed to be the missing child, is not Madeleine McCann. The DNA test result, revealed by Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, finally put to rest months of speculation and a campaign of harassment that has left the McCann family reeling.
Wandelt, together with her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, stands accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February 2025. According to the Express, this campaign included a barrage of phone calls, emails, WhatsApp messages, physical visits to the McCanns’ home, and voicemails pleading for a DNA test. Wandelt’s messages were often emotional, sometimes desperate, and always insistent that she was Madeleine, the little girl who vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
Detective Chief Inspector Cranwell, the senior investigating officer for Operation Grange—the Metropolitan Police’s long-running probe into Madeleine’s disappearance—testified that the decision to take a DNA sample from Wandelt was not made lightly. As reported by the Press Association, Cranwell explained, “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I did not want to set a precedent. If it became known in the media I had taken DNA off an individual quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.”
Yet, as Wandelt’s behavior escalated, targeting not just Kate and Gerry but also Madeleine’s younger siblings, Amelie and Sean, Cranwell felt the threshold for harassment had been reached. “My assessment was she had reached the threshold for harassment—stalking,” Cranwell told the court, according to The Express. “The decision to obtain DNA weighed heavily on my mind,” he continued, acknowledging both the emotional impact on the McCanns and the risk of fueling further media frenzy.
Ultimately, a DNA sample was taken from Wandelt at the time of her arrest at Bristol Airport in February 2025. The result was clear-cut. “A comparison took place. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann,” Cranwell stated in court, as reported by the Press Association. He later visited Wandelt in custody to deliver the news in person. “I told her, ‘A sample was taken whilst you were in custody in February. Your sample was submitted to the laboratory and a profile was established. This has now been compared to the profile of Madeleine McCann. You are not Madeleine McCann.’”
Despite being presented with scientific proof, Wandelt reportedly questioned the result, asking, “Do you have paperwork?” and suggesting, “There’s a possibility she never accepts she is not Madeleine.” The court heard that Wandelt’s campaign was not a solitary endeavor. Prosecutors described it as a "well-planned campaign of harassment" with Spragg as a "supporter and confidante," who “adopted and evolved” the false claims with gusto from 2024 onwards. Both women deny all charges.
The impact of this ordeal on the McCanns has been profound. Kate McCann, giving evidence from behind a screen, described her distress at being confronted on her driveway by Wandelt and Spragg in December 2024. “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,” Kate recalled, according to The Express. The emotional toll was echoed by Gerry McCann, who broke down in the witness box as he spoke of the effect on his wife and children. “As a parent you try and protect your children and we know social media can be really damaging. All the horrible things that have been written about us. The nasty stuff online, obviously we want to protect them from that,” he told the jury.
The court also heard from other members of the McCann family, including Kate’s aunt Janet, who described the trauma of the ongoing harassment. “She is the only one to pursue it the way she has, like arriving at the house and things like that,” Janet testified. “The uncertainty produces anxiety.” The family’s vicar, Reverend Robert Gladstone, recounted how Wandelt approached him at a vigil for Madeleine, asserting she was the missing child. “Pretty instantly, from what I know of Gerry and Kate, and seeing Sean and Amelie grow up over the years, her physique bore no resemblance to the McCann family. I could see no way she was related.”
Throughout the trial, the court was played voicemails and messages left by Wandelt for Kate McCann. In one, she pleaded, “I just want a DNA test. If I’m not Madeleine McCann then I will leave you all alone. Just don’t reject me. There’s a possibility I’m her. I know I remember.” In another, she insisted, “You are mummy. You know it’s me. You know I’m not crazy. I remember how you hugged me before the abduction happened. You said you loved me and will find me.” The persistence and emotional intensity of these messages left the family feeling besieged and anxious.
Spragg, for her part, left a voicemail for Kate McCann suggesting a cover-up and urging the family to take a DNA test. “At the moment your name is going round, saying there is a cover up. I’m begging you please, for Julia’s sake, do a DNA, and she will go away if she is not Madeleine. Maybe this could be a cover-up. Please take this seriously, ok?” she said, as reported in court.
Operation Grange, the Metropolitan Police’s dedicated team investigating Madeleine’s disappearance, has faced its own challenges. Cranwell revealed that over the years, twelve people have come forward claiming to be Madeleine. None, until Wandelt, had their DNA tested, as the police worried about encouraging further false claims. “We used our professional expertise from studying the photos to say she was not Madeleine McCann,” Detective Constable Mark Draycott testified, adding that hundreds of people have made similar claims over the years.
In the end, the DNA evidence—combined with differences in eye pigment, iris color, and age—left no doubt. “We were satisfied Julia was not Madeleine McCann. It was very evident from the photo she sent in and the information she said that she was not Madeleine McCann,” Draycott told the jury.
For the McCann family, the ordeal of being targeted by false claims and relentless harassment has added another layer of pain to their long search for answers. As Gerry McCann told the court, “We really hope, and we know it’s only a glimmer, that Madeleine is alive. When so many people claim to be our missing daughter, it inevitably pulls your heartstrings, but there is a wider effect that is more damaging.”
The trial of Julia Wandelt and Karen Spragg continues, but for the McCanns, the hope remains that the world will one day focus not on false leads, but on the search for the truth about what happened to Madeleine.
