Alleged Stalker Inquired: 'Yet Imagine I Could Be Madeleine?'
A female accused with pursuing Kate McCann allegedly recorded her a phone message which asked: "imagine I am Madeleine?"
The defendant, 24, who witnesses stated has persistently declared she was the missing Madeleine McCann, and Karen Spragg are standing trial charged with harassing Kate and Gerry McCann from June 2022 and February 2025.
On Monday, the tribunal learned call records and data recovered from phones logged Ms Wandelt persistently asking Madeleine's mother for a genetic test throughout the past two years.
Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 - as a three-year-old during a family holiday in Portugal - is one of the most covered missing child cases and is still open.
'I Do Not Need Money'
One recorded message, shared in court, recorded Ms Wandelt stating: "I realize I'm overweight and plain like Madeleine used to be, but I believe what I know."
While one recording of Ms Wandelt's recordings with Mrs McCann's voicemail expressed: "What if there is a small chance that I am she? What then? Is that not crucial for you?"
"I do not need money, I possess a existence here in Poland, I simply desire to understand," she added.
The jury was informed that through emails, SMS messages and phone calls, Ms Wandelt requested a genetic test, forwarded childhood photos to her phone in a bid to demonstrate a likeness to Mrs McCann's disappeared daughter, and claimed to have "recollections" from a childhood with the McCanns.
Robert Jones, an intelligence analyst with law enforcement who gathered the data, told the court there "didn't appear to be any responses" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt also communicated with family friends of the McCanns, as per the call data.
On 9 October 2024, Gerry McCann picked up a communication from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, stating she had "incorrect contact information."
During that incident Ms Wandelt left a voicemail on Mrs McCann's answerphone declaring "I will persist and I plan to establish my claim."
The court learned Mrs Spragg developed a connection online with Ms Wandelt preceding joining her on a appearance to the McCanns' residence in the county in that winter.
Phone records revealed Mrs Spragg had reached out via messaging service to Mrs McCann to state the press had portrayed Ms Wandelt as "emotionally disturbed" but that she should be taken seriously in the time preceding the trip to that location, that area, in last December.
The court learned correspondence between the two individuals, in last November, considering trying to obtain Mrs McCann's genetic material from her trash or from utensils at a eating establishment.
"We have to make a stand," the co-defendant advised Ms Wandelt.
On the occasion of the appearance to their house, Mrs Spragg transmitted a text which said: "We are sitting adjacent to the McCanns' house with our headlights off resembling investigators. I desired to accomplish this with another person I never thought I would be engaged in this with the McCanns."
The case proceeds.
