On a rainy evening in Rothley, Leicestershire, the annual vigil marking the disappearance of Madeleine McCann took a startling turn. On May 3, 2024—seventeen years after the three-year-old vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal—Julia Wandelt, a 24-year-old woman from Lubin, Poland, approached Janet Kennedy, Madeleine’s great-aunt and the event’s organiser, with an extraordinary claim: she was Madeleine McCann.
According to BBC News, Kennedy, who has faithfully organised the vigil each year and describes herself as a “confidante” to Kate McCann, was “stunned” by Wandelt’s approach. Wandelt handed Kennedy an envelope, insisting it contained information that would prove her identity. “She said that she was Madeleine and that she was sorry that the McCanns weren’t there, but she wished me to give them some information and she presented me with an envelope with information in that would prove she was Madeleine,” Kennedy told Leicester Crown Court. “I was rather stunned by her approach. I looked at her and thought ‘she is not Madeleine’. There’s just no way she could be Madeleine at all.”
The vigil, typically a somber occasion for reflection and remembrance, was moved inside the local Baptist Church due to inclement weather. Reverend Robert Gladstone, who led the service, also encountered Wandelt. He recounted to the court that Wandelt asked to be introduced to the McCanns and later confided, “she was Madeleine, she had been abused as a child and the people that brought her up weren’t her real parents.” Gladstone, recognizing the gravity and sensitivity of the situation, “pretty instantly” dismissed her claim and made no move to introduce her to the family.
Wandelt’s insistence did not end at the vigil. As Sky News reported, she allegedly called and messaged Kate McCann as many as 60 times in a single day, and later, along with 61-year-old Karen Spragg from Cardiff, visited the McCann family home on December 7, 2024. The pair are now standing trial at Leicester Crown Court, both denying the charge of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February 2025. Prosecutors allege that Wandelt carried out a “well-planned campaign of harassment” lasting almost three years, later joined by Spragg, who became a “supporter and confidante.”
The court heard that Wandelt’s campaign included not only repeated attempts to contact Madeleine’s parents but also efforts to reach out to Madeleine’s younger twin siblings, Amelie and Sean, now aged 20, via social media. According to Daily Mail, the harassment escalated to the point where Wandelt and Spragg allegedly considered following the McCanns to a restaurant to obtain cutlery for DNA testing—an attempt to further substantiate Wandelt’s claim.
Janet Kennedy, reflecting on her encounter with Wandelt, emphasized the intuitive recognition she felt was missing. “I think one’s recognition of someone is something that is intuitive. You just know the person. The essential person that Madeleine is—was—not there. Her eyes were not the same,” she told the court. Kennedy also noted differences in Wandelt’s appearance, stating, “with the colour of your skin, you are Polish, there are distinct differences in the way people look according to where they are from. And the eyes as well. The eyes did not look like Madeleine’s eyes. So I could not accept that.”
After taking the envelope, Kennedy kept it for several months, hoping Kate McCann might one day feel ready to look at it. However, as the alleged harassment continued—including persistent phone calls, letters, emails, and in-person visits—Kennedy eventually tore up the letter, recognizing the distress it was causing the family. “By this time Julia was visiting the house and bombarding Kate and Gerry with emails and phone calls—it was becoming insistent and frequent,” Kennedy explained, as reported by Daily Mail.
The court also heard from Detective Constable Mark Draycott, a Metropolitan Police officer attached to Operation Grange, the ongoing investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance. Draycott recounted his first contact with Wandelt in June 2022, when she called a police hotline from a psychiatric hospital in Poland, claiming to be the missing child. She later sent police an eight-point list of supposed evidence, including assertions of physical similarities and childhood abuse by a suspect in the case. “Her case was investigated with police ruling her out of their inquiries—which Det Con Draycott told the court was a ‘relief’ to Ms Wandelt,” BBC News reported. Draycott explained that experts had reviewed photos and the distinctive eye condition Madeleine was known to have. “The experts said it wouldn’t have faded in that time. The medical expertise is that it couldn’t move and couldn’t fade. We had already worked on facial recognition.”
Despite being told “in no uncertain terms” that she was not Madeleine, Wandelt continued to believe otherwise. In February 2025, just over a week before her arrest at Bristol Airport, she sent another email to the parish church office addressed to “Father Rob,” again claiming DNA evidence and physical similarities. “It meant nothing to me,” Reverend Gladstone told the court.
The saga took another twist when a recorded phone conversation between Draycott and Wandelt was played to the jury. Unbeknownst to Draycott, the call had been recorded and later uploaded to a YouTube crime podcast. During the call, Draycott was heard saying, “All I am going to say is what I said back in 2022—you are not Madeleine McCann, ok? I know that is hard to hear and I know you have been told this by many people, but you have to accept we have worked on this investigation since 2011.” Wandelt protested, “I remember many things. I don’t know how you can say I am not Madeleine without any testing.” Draycott replied, “We know you are not Madeleine, and you’re not the first person… We are happy, we are satisfied that you are not Madeleine McCann. You have had treatment for many years for mental health treatment. You have got to accept you having loving parents and family back home. They are your family. You are not Kate and Gerry’s daughter.”
Throughout the trial, the McCann family’s ordeal was evident. Kennedy described the past year as “very traumatic,” noting that Wandelt’s campaign set her apart from others who had previously claimed to be Madeleine. “To the best of my knowledge I think she is the only one who has pursued it to the extent she has. I think they felt they really couldn’t be sure what the outcome would be in terms of their own personal safety.”
As of October 10, 2025, the trial of Julia Wandelt and Karen Spragg continues, drawing renewed attention to one of the world’s most haunting missing child cases and the lasting impact on those left behind.
