🔗 Share this article Confidential DNA Examination Proved Suspected Stalker Was Not Madeleine McCann, Says Detective A suspected stalker who asserted to be the abducted child was eliminated after a confidential DNA test proved conclusively she was not the missing girl, investigators stated in court. Stalking Allegations Targeting McCann Family Julia Wandelt, 24, faces charges for a pattern of threatening behavior against the parents of Madeleine, who vanished from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 when she was three. The Polish citizen flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and turned up at their home demanding a DNA test, the court was earlier informed. Police Testimony Testifying on Tuesday, the lead detective on Madeleine's disappearance, stated he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”. The senior officer said over a dozen persons had in the past insisted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent. “If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from a person most likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’. “I sincerely hold major concerns about contacting the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and difficult for the family.” Genetic Testing He said the police had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to dissimilar appearance and that she was older by two years than the child. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”. He stated: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.” Legal Testimony Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the officer met with Wandelt while detained and informed her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the profiles did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.” Evidence showed that while they spoke, Wandelt inquired: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he answered: “Yes.” He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have tampered with the sample”, stating: “There existed a chance she would refuse to acknowledge she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.” Psychological Toll In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the family were left terrified and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “deeply disturbing” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to insist on a DNA test. Jurors heard how the defendants made progressively odd plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that the McCanns dined at. Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. The trial continues.