The keys
nuevo
Generated with AI
nuevo
Generated with AI
Julia Wandelt, a young Polish woman who falsely claimed to be Madeleine McCann, was declared culpable this Friday of harassing the family of the British girl who disappeared in 2007 in the Algarve, in the south of Portugal, for more than two years.
Wandelt, 24, harassed Madeleine’s parentsKate and Gerry, including through emails, messages and phone calls, from June 2022 until their arrest last February.
The young Polish woman was also accused of stalk the McCann family causing serious alarm or distress, Although she was acquitted of those charges, which were more serious than harassment, for which the judge imposed the maximum sentence of six months in prison.
The magistrate, however, recalled that the convicted woman has exceeded that period by remaining in custody since she was arrested last February at Bristol airport (southwest of England).
Wandelt also received a restraining order of Kate and Gerry McCann because it represents a “significant risk of harassment” to the family “in the future,” the judge added.
“It has been confirmed – he stressed – that you are not Madeleine McCann. There was no logical or valid basis for this.. What you should not have done was behave as you did with the McCanns. “His constant harassment, insistence and, finally, his visit to her home on a dark December night, were unjustified.”
Along with the young Polish woman, the prosecution had also accused the Welsh woman of harassment and stalking for sending letters and going to the McCann home. Karen Spragg, 61, who was found not guilty of all charges and received another restraining order.
“Sinister” calls and letters
During the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that Wandelt repeatedly showed up at the McCann family home, sent them letters of “sinister” content and insisted that they agree to carry out DNA tests.
The prosecution reported that on a single day, April 13, 2024, Wandelt tried to contact Kate McCann on more than 60 occasions through calls and messages.
Wandelt became an internet sensation in February 2023 when she posted on Instagram with the account ‘@IAmMadeleineMcCann’ and appeared in television programs talking about the possibility of being the girl who disappeared at the age of 3 in Portugal.
The convicted woman declared that I remembered, thanks to hypnosis sessions, his life with Kate, Gerry and his younger siblings, as well as the time when She was kidnapped in Portugal in 2007 and taken to Poland to be sexually exploited. with other minors.
Wandelt told the jury that never intended to cause harm to the McCanns and that he simply wanted to find out if it could be his missing daughter. “I even feel compassion for them… because they are looking for their daughter and I am looking for my parents,” he said.
Kate McCann, Madeleine’s mother testified last October that Wandelt made her feel distressed and “invaded” by appear in December 2024 at his house claiming to be his daughter.
Kate McCann also revealed that Wandelt sent him a letter the next day addressed to “Mom,” which he found “really distressing.”
Gerry McCann and Amelie, Madeleine’s younger sister, also testified about the impact Wandelt’s attempts to contact them had on them.
Madeleine’s disappearance
Madeleine’s parents continue their campaign to find their daughter, who would now be 22, issuing a statement each year on the anniversary of the day she disappeared.
On May 3, 2007, Madeleine McCann disappeared from the apartment where she was sleeping with her two-year-old twin brothers in Praia da Luz, while her parents were having dinner with friends a few meters away at the Portuguese holiday complex.
In 2020, the German Police declared Christian Brückner as the main suspect in the kidnapping and murder of the little girl, but no charges were filed.
Brückner was released from a German prison in September after serving a seven-year sentence for an unrelated sex crime.