A Polish woman who claimed to be missing British toddler Madeleine McCann has been found guilty of harassment in Leicestershire.
The jury acquitted Julia Wandelt, also known as Julia Faustyna and Julia Wendell, on a charge of stalking the toddler’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, the BBC reported.
Madeleine, 3 at the time, was vacationing with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007 when she vanished from her hotel room, as CrimeOnline reported. Her parents had been dining a short distance away on the resort property while she slept in the room with her siblings.
Investigators believe that convicted rapist Christian Brueckner kidnapped the girl and killed her, but her body has not been found, and Brueckner has never been charged.
Wandelt, now 24, surfaced in 2023, claiming to be Madeleine McCann. She was charged with stalking earlier this year.
The judge sentenced Wandelt to six months in prison on the harassment charge and ordered her cell phones destroyed. As she has been in custody since February, she will likely be deported immediately after the proceedings.
The judge, Johannah Cutts, acknowledged Wandelt’s difficult childhood but said “that does not justifiy the way you behaved.”
“It has been confirmed in this case you are not Madeleine McCann. There was not proper or logical basis for this,” Cutts told the defendant. “What you should not have done is behave as you did to the McCanns. … Your constant pestering, badgering and eventually attendance at their home address on a dark evening in December was unwarranted. You had been properly warned to desist but did not. You continued to contact the McCanns and their friends and, worse still, their children.”
Cutts granted an indefinite restraining order barring Wandelt from contacting the McCanns, saying she posed a “significant risk” of harm to the family in the future.
The jury acquitted a Welsh woman, Karen Spragg, of stalking but granted a restraining order barring her from contacting the McCanns for five years.
“Mrs Spragg said it herself in interview, she saw Miss Wandelt as the victim and not the McCanns,” Cutts said. “She supported her while indulging in her conspiracy theories.”
Both Spragg and Wandelt are barred from entering Leicestershire, where the McCanns live, in the future.
The McCanns released a statement following the verdict saing they “take no pleasure in the result.”
“Like most people, we did not want to go through a court process and only wanted the harassment to stop,” Kate and Gerry McCann said, according to The Daily Mail. “The decision to prosecute was taken by the Crown Prosecution Service, based on the evidence gathered by the police. We hope Ms Wandelt will receive the appropriate care and support she needs and any vulnerability will not be exploited by others.
“If anyone has new evidence relating to Madeleine’s disappearance, please pass this on to the police.”
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Julia Wandelt/Instagram; Madeleine McCann/Family Handout]