Accused Stalker Inquired: 'However Imagine I Could Be Madeleine?'
A woman accused with harassing Kate McCann reportedly deposited her a voicemail message which posed: "what if I am Madeleine?"
The defendant, twenty-four, who witnesses stated has consistently asserted she was the missing Madeleine McCann, and her co-defendant are standing trial indicted with pursuing Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.
On Monday, Leicester Crown Court heard phone records and information retrieved from phones logged Ms Wandelt consistently requesting Madeleine's mother for a DNA test throughout that period.
Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 - when she was three years old during a trip in Portugal - is among the most covered investigations and continues to be unsolved.
'I Do Not Need Money'
Another phone message, played in court, captured Ms Wandelt saying: "I know I'm overweight and not pretty like Madeleine was, but I know what I feel."
While another instance of Ms Wandelt's one-way conversations with Mrs McCann's answerphone said: "Imagine there is a tiny probability that I'm her? Then what? Wouldn't that be important for you?"
"I do not need money, I have a living here in Poland, I simply desire to know," she added.
The jury was advised that by means of emails, SMS messages and calls, Ms Wandelt demanded a DNA test, sent youth pictures to her phone in a effort to display a resemblance to Mrs McCann's disappeared daughter, and claimed to have "flashbacks" from a early life with the McCanns.
Robert Jones, an intelligence analyst with Leicestershire Police who compiled the evidence, informed the court there "didn't appear to be any replies" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt also reached out to family friends of the McCanns, as per the call data.
On 9 October 2024, Gerry McCann picked up a call from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, declaring she had "the wrong phone."
That day Ms Wandelt deposited a message on Mrs McCann's recording declaring "I will continue and I will prove my claim."
The court was informed the co-defendant established a relationship via internet with Ms Wandelt prior to accompanying her on a trip to the McCanns' property in Leicestershire in that winter.
Call logs showed Mrs Spragg had reached out through WhatsApp to Mrs McCann to state the media had depicted Ms Wandelt as "emotionally disturbed" but that she should be treated respectfully in the months preceding the appearance to Rothley, Leicestershire, in last December.
The court learned message exchanges between the two accused, in that autumn, discussing trying to acquire Mrs McCann's genetic material from her garbage or from cutlery at a eating establishment.
"We must make a stand," Mrs Spragg told Ms Wandelt.
On the occasion of the visit to their home, Mrs Spragg transmitted a text which said: "We are sitting near the McCanns' home with our headlights off similar to private investigators. I desired to accomplish this with someone else I hadn't anticipated I would be doing that with the McCanns."
The trial proceeds.
