‘Playing with memories’: Madeleine McCann’s sister testifies about stalker’s disturbing claims
The sister of Britain’s most famous missing child has broken her silence about the stranger who claimed to be Madeleine McCann.
The sister of missing British girl Madeleine McCann told a UK jury she found messages from a woman accused of stalking the family and claiming to be her lost older sibling “creepy”.
Amelie McCann, who was a toddler when three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from the family’s holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007, said Julia Wandelt began messaging her on social media in early 2024.
Some of the messages mentioned hypnosis sessions and offered to tell Amelie her “memories”, prosecutor Nadia Silver said on Thursday local time.
Wandelt repeated requests for Amelie’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, to take a DNA test to confirm her belief that they were related.
Amelie said she always knew that Wandelt was not Madeleine but that it was “quite creepy that she’s giving those details” and playing with “my emotions and my memories”.
Wandelt and Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff in Wales, are on trial accused of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann. They each deny the charge.
Prosecutors said earlier there was “unequivocal scientific evidence” that Wandelt, who has claimed to have recollections about Madeleine’s childhood and disappearance, did not have any familial link to the McCanns.
Amelie, giving testimony in a calm soft-spoken manner, described the messaging on multiple platforms including Facebook as “quite persistent”.
Giving evidence via video-link at Leicester Court in central England, she said she blocked Wandelt on some social media but the woman continued to try to establish contact through a letter posted to her.
In the letter, Wandelt told Amelie she was her “last hope” of proving that she was Madeleine. It also included pictures of “me and her”, she said.
“She clearly altered or edited the pictures to make it look more like her, which is quite disturbing.”
‘SHE CALLED ME MUM’
Madeleine McCann’s mum on Wednesday told the court it was clear to her from photographs that Wandelt was an impostor.
Kate McCann, giving evidence at the trial of Julia Wandelt for stalking her and her husband Gerry, also said the 24-year-old had attended a vigil last year for Madeleine.
Prosecutor Michael Duck said Wandelt left messages on Kate McCann’s mobile phone requesting her to “let me prove I am not a liar”.
Asked if she had been willing to take a DNA test, as Wandelt wanted, McCann said she almost came round to the idea just to rule it out.
“If I’m honest, because of the persistence of Julia’s behaviour, it did start to get to me,” she said in evidence at Leicester Crown Court in central England from behind a screen.
“I almost wanted a DNA test to put it to bed … from the photographs … I knew it wasn’t her,” she said.
On one occasion, Wandelt and Spragg visited the McCanns’ home, taking Kate McCann by surprise in the dark and leaving her “distressed”.
“She called me mum, I think, she was asking for a DNA test, ‘why won’t you do a DNA test?’ and pleading with me,” she said.
“I got a fright anyway, when I realised who it was I felt quite distressed.”
“Then they followed me, I remember trying to close the door and Julia trying to put her hands out to stop me closing the door,” she added.
Wandelt allegedly bombarded the McCanns with emails and calls between June 2022 and February 2025.
At one point, Wandelt called Kate McCann 60 times in a single day, the prosecution said.
The McCann parents, both doctors, have been in the international limelight since Madeleine, then aged three, disappeared on May 3, 2007, from the apartment in the Praia da Luz seaside resort where the family was holidaying.
Prosecutors said there was “unequivocal scientific evidence” that Wandelt, who has claimed to have memories of Madeleine’s childhood and disappearance, did not have any familial link to the McCanns.
WENT TO THE MCCANNS HOME
On day two of the trial the court heard of an incident where Mrs McCann returned to her house only to find the duo allegedly waiting for her.
A prosecutor told the court the women's “behaviour was such that Kate McCann was unnerved by it” and she “told the pair they were causing distress and should leave the property”.
The court heard that as Mrs McCann went inside, Wandelt “attempted to stop her closing the door”.
Shaken by the alleged interaction, Mrs McCann phone her husband Gerry and “could hear bangs at the front door” while she was on the phone prosecutor Michael Duck added.
When Mr McCann got home shortly after, both Wandelt and Spragg were still there, the court heard.
“They both embarked in very similar behaviour – both shouting at him and trying to force a letter into his hand,” Mr Duck said.
The court was also played audio of the interaction which was recorded by Wandelt.
“I don’t want this, please leave the premises,” Mr McCann can be heard saying.
While Mr McCann refused to take the letter, it was allegedly pushed through the door the following day.
The court was read the note which was addressed to “mum” and signed “Madeleine.”
“I’m so sorry for causing you so much distress, but when I saw you yesterday, my emotions were so strong,” the note reads.
“I felt a close connection to you … I don’t understand why you don’t want to do a DNA test with me.
“I think you are scared, but whatever makes you scared, just remember that you are stronger than that.”
CLAIMED TO BE TWO OTHER MISSING GIRLS
“Can we at this very early stage in the trial make this position clear – that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann,” prosecutor Michael Duck told the court at the start of the trial.
The prosecutor pointed out that at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, Wandelt was not the same age as her.
Duck said that starting in June 2022 Wandelt tried to convince “anybody prepared to listen” that she was the missing child, arguing she was kidnapped and taken to Poland.
The 24-year-old, who was arrested at Bristol Airport in February 2025, is accused of showing up at the McCanns’ home address.
At one point, she called Kate McCann 60 times in a single day, the court was told, including about her alleged memories of the girl’s disappearance.
She also sent “altered” images to Madeleine’s younger sister to “persuade” her that they were related, the prosecution said.
“One of many tragic consequences for Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, has been their constant inability to escape the glare of publicity that came with that tragedy,” Duck said.
“There remains a group of individuals who continue to fail to acknowledge their plight and perpetuate conspiracy theories.”
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 Duck told the jury between 2022 and 2025, when she was arrested, that Wandelt claimed to be two other missing girls.
“By the latter part of February 2023, she had now asserted she was potentially two different missing girls,” he said.
“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 also heard that, on a separate occasion, Wandelt claimed to be another missing girl called Acacia Bishop.
The unsolved case, which has generated huge international and media interest, was thrust back into the spotlight last month after the top suspect in the disappearance was released from a German prison.
Christian Brueckner – who had finished a seven-year jail term for raping a 72-year-old American woman – was not charged in the McCann case because of a lack of evidence.
In June, police combed an overgrown area and abandoned buildings in Portugal near where Brueckner lived at the time, but have yet to announce that they found any evidence.
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Originally published as ‘Playing with memories’: Madeleine McCann’s sister testifies about stalker’s disturbing claims
