“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.
‘Conspiracy theories’
Wandelt, who was refused bail by a judge in March, has previously claimed to be two other missing girls, prosecutors told the court.
On separate occasions, she allegedly claimed to be Inga Gehricke, a missing German girl, and Acacia Bishop, who disappeared in Utah in 2003.
“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.”
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.
-Agence France-Presse
