Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann pretended to be two other missing girls, court hears

A woman who allegedly claimed to be missing toddler Madeleine McCann pretended to be two other girls who had also vanished, a court has heard.

Julia Wandelt, 24, allegedly called and messaged Kate McCann, Madeleine's mother, 60 times in a day. The three-year-old disappeared on 3 May 2007 after her parents left her asleep in their holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

In one message Wandelt allegedly said she remembered Mrs McCann on the night of the abduction "rubbing my head and said I love you and you would find me". Today, Leicester Crown Court heard that Wandelt did not limit her claims to being Madeleine, but two more girls.

The alleged stalker, from Lubin, southwest Poland, is on trial with Karen Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road, Caerau, Cardiff. They both deny stalking Kate and Madeleine's father Gerry McCann, causing serious alarm or distress, between June 2022 and February this year.

Wandelt contacted a charity called Missing Years Ago, which helps with historic missing persons cases, in January or February 2023, the court heard. These dates "coincided with Julia Wandelt's assertion she was Madeleine McCann".

'I'm not a liar, I'm not crazy' A voicemail left on Mrs McCann's phone was played to the jury, in which Wandelt allegedly said: "You have nothing to lose, if I'm her then everybody should be okay but if I'm not, as you probably think, then I will leave you alone. "I know my accent is Polish because I live here, I know I look fat and I know I'm not pretty like Madeleine was in the past, but I know what I know, I know what I remember.

"Please just give me a chance, I'm not a liar, I'm not crazy - I just want to know the truth. Call me or message me or whatever please." Prosecutor Michael Duck KC told the jury on Monday: "In the time between 2022 and her arrest in 2025, Julia Wandelt did not limit her claims to be a missing girl to the tragic case of Madeleine McCann.

"By the latter part of February 2023, she had now asserted she was potentially two different missing girls." He added: "The initial contact with the charity was not to contend that she was Madeleine McCann but rather to suggest that she was another missing girl, Inga Gehricke. "Inga was a young girl who had disappeared in Germany, but as with Madeleine McCann, Julia Wandelt was precluded from being a realistic candidate by virtue of her age and obvious differences." The jury heard that, on a separate occasion, Wandelt claimed to be another missing girl called Acacia Bishop.

The trial will continue on 14 October..