Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann charged with stalking girl’s family – National

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann charged with stalking girl’s family – National

A woman who once claimed to be Madeleine McCann is now in custody after she was accused of stalking the missing girl’s family by allegedly contacting them incessantly and turning up at their home in the U.K.

Julia Wandel, also known as Julia Wandelt or Julia Wendell, was

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

at an airport in Bristol, reports The Guardian.

According to the outlet, she has been

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

four members of the McCann family — parents Gerry and Kate, and twin siblings Sean and Amelie — throughout the duration of 2024 and into 2025. She is also alleged to have paid unwanted and unsolicited visits to their home twice, in May and December of last year.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

FILE – In this May 2, 2012 file photo, Kate and Gerry McCann pose for the media with a missing poster depicting an age progression computer-generated image of their daughter Madeleine at nine years of age, to mark her birthday and the 5th anniversary of her disappearance during a family vacation in southern Portugal in May 2007, during a news conference in London.

Sang Tan / The Associated Press

The charges state the alleged contact, which came in the form of phone calls, voicemails, a letter and WhatsApp and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

messages, “had a substantial adverse effect” on the family.

Story continues below advertisement

In 2023, Wandel began posting numerous pieces of “evidence” to social media, claiming she believed she might be the missing McCann, who vanished without a trace in 2007 when she was just three years old while on a family vacation in Portugal.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

The crux of her “proof” regarding physical resemblance revolved around McCann’s rare eye disorder, one Wandel claimed to share. When McCann went missing, a coloboma abnormality in her right eye was used as a major identifying feature. (A coloboma is a hole in the structure of the eye, often causing a visible tear or hole.)

She also claimed to have the same dimple as McCann, several similarly located ****** and freckles, and similar gaps in her teeth.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

3:36
Madeleine McCann suspect cleared of unrelated sex crimes by ******* court

Previous Video

Next Video

However, two months later her spokesperson said a DNA test confirmed Wandel was not the missing girl. In fact, the test showed that Wandel has near 100 per cent Polish heritage, with no evidence of British or even ******* ancestry.

Story continues below advertisement

Polish police disputed Wandel’s claims that she was McCann about a week after she reached viral fame and Wandel’s own parents spoke out about her campaign, saying they were “devastated” by her claims and the worldwide media attention it garnered.

On the left is Julia Wandel, the Polish woman who once claimed to be missing girl, Madeleine McCann, on the right.

@iammadeleinemccan/Family of Madeleine McCann

Trending Now

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Chantal Kreviazuk changes ********* anthem lyric to protest Trump remarks

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

5.1 magnitude earthquake rattles parts of B.C. Friday

“It is obvious that Julia isn’t Maddie,” they wrote in a statement on the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, adding that their daughter has received therapy from psychologists and psychiatrists in the past, but suggesting that may have stopped recently.

“She refuses treatment, doesn’t take medicines regularly … we are devastated at the current situation.”

According to The Guardian, Wandel

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

to face her charges. She did not put forward any pleas. She will appear for a full plea hearing on April 7 and will remain in custody.

Story continues below advertisement

The outlet reports that a second woman was also arrested alongside Wandel on suspicion of stalking. The 60-year-old Welsh woman was released on bail.

On May 3, 2007, McCann went missing from a hotel room in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while on vacation with her parents. Her parents were dining with friends at a nearby tapas bar, leaving McCann and her two siblings asleep in their bedroom on the evening she disappeared.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

1:52
Madeleine McCann presumed dead by ******* authorities

Previous Video

Next Video

Her disappearance launched a cross-country investigation and resulted in an international media frenzy.

For more than a decade, Portuguese, English and ******* police forces have collaborated in an attempt to locate McCann and her kidnapper.

In June 2020, ******* police said that McCann is assumed dead but British authorities continue to treat her disappearance as a missing person case.

More on World
More videos

&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Woman #claimed #Madeleine #McCann #charged #stalking #girls #family #National

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up