'Why are you doing this?': Sobbing Madeleine McCann faker escorted out of stalking trial after screaming at Kate McCann
Madeleine McCann disappeared while on holiday with her family in Portugal in 2007
A Polish woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann sobbed as she was escorted out of her stalking trial after screaming at Kate McCann.
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Julia Wandelt had to be taken out of the dock at Leicester Crown Court after uncontrollably sobbing and screaming "why are you doing this to me" at the mother of missing Madeleine.
The outburst came during an emotional day of testimony from Kate McCann in which she open up about the moment she says that Wandelt turned up at her family home.
Wandelt, a Polish national, claimed to be the missing child on social media and sent Kate a slew of disturbing text messages and voice mails.
Read more: Who is Christian Brueckner and what happened to Madeleine McCann?
Appearing behind a screen at Leicester Crown Court, Kate opened up about her first interactions with the alleged stalker.
Kate McCann said she became aware through officers working on Operation Grange, the Met Police inquiry into her daughter's 2007 disappearance, that Wandelt believed herself to be Madeleine.
Prosecutor Michael Duck KC then read excerpts of messages Wandelt sent to Mrs McCann, in which the defendant said "let me prove I am not a liar" and "give me a chance, I don't want money".
After confirming that she could remember the messages "arriving" at her mobile phone, Mrs McCann was asked by Mr Duck if she had responded to the messages.
Mrs McCann answered: "No. I did not want to engage."
But Wandelt was persistent, Mrs McCann went on, at one point messaging the mum “I’m not crazy, do not give up on your daughter.”
The messages became so overwhelming that Mrs McCann considered taking a DNA test to prove once and for all that Wandelt was not her daughter.
Michael Duck KC asked Kate McCann about a voicemail message left on her phone by Julia Wandelt which asked her and husband Gerry for a DNA test to be carried out.
He said: "Was that something you had a willingness or desire to do?"
Mrs McCann replied: "If I'm honest, because of the persistence of Julia's behaviour, it did start to get to me.
"I almost wanted a DNA test to put it to bed... from the photographs.. I knew it wasn't her."
Mrs McCann said she arrived home in December 2024 and, while opening her car boot, heard someone call her name.
She said her immediate reaction upon seeing Wandelt was fear, adding she "pretty quickly" identified who it was.
“She called me mum,” Mrs McCann added.
Wandelt was joined by a second woman, who was "slightly aggressive", Mrs McCann told the court.
Wandelt and 61-year-old Karen Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Caerau, Cardiff, both deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.