Suspected Stalker Questioned: 'However Suppose I Could Be Madeleine?'
A woman accused with pursuing Kate McCann allegedly left her a phone message which asked: "imagine I am Madeleine?"
The defendant, 24, who witnesses stated has persistently claimed she was the missing Madeleine McCann, and Karen Spragg are on trial charged with pursuing Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February 2025.
On Monday, the tribunal was told call records and evidence retrieved from phones logged Ms Wandelt consistently requesting Madeleine's mother for a DNA test throughout the past two years.
Madeleine's case in 2007 - at the age of three during a family holiday in Portugal - is considered the most widely reported missing child cases and remains unresolved.
'I Do Not Need Money'
A separate phone message, shared in court, documented Ms Wandelt declaring: "I know I'm heavy and plain like Madeleine was, but I feel what I feel."
While a separate message of Ms Wandelt's one-way conversations with Mrs McCann's recording said: "Suppose there is a tiny probability that I am Madeleine? What then? Is that not significant for you?"
"I don't want money, I have a living here in Poland, I just want to know," she added.
The tribunal was advised that by means of electronic messages, text messages and calls, Ms Wandelt requested a DNA test, sent early photographs to her phone in a bid to show a likeness to Mrs McCann's disappeared daughter, and stated to have "memories" from a early life with the McCanns.
An intelligence analyst, an investigator with the police force who collated the information, advised the court there "seemed to lack any replies" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt also communicated with acquaintances of the McCanns, based on the phone records.
On that date, Gerry McCann picked up a phone call from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, declaring she had "a wrong number."
That day Ms Wandelt deposited a message on Mrs McCann's voicemail saying "I will persist and I will prove my claim."
The court learned the co-defendant established a association through digital means with Ms Wandelt preceding accompanying her on a visit to the McCanns' home in Leicestershire in December 2024.
Communication data revealed Mrs Spragg had communicated using WhatsApp to Mrs McCann to express the media had portrayed Ms Wandelt as "emotionally disturbed" but that she deserved to be taken seriously in the time leading up to the appearance to Rothley, the county, in December 2024.
The court was told message exchanges between the two individuals, in last November, considering attempting to obtain Mrs McCann's genetic material from her garbage or from silverware at a eating establishment.
"We must take action," Mrs Spragg informed Ms Wandelt.
On the night of the visit to their home, Mrs Spragg dispatched a message which stated: "We are sat near the McCanns' home with our headlights off like private investigators. I desired to achieve this with someone else I didn't imagine I would be engaged in this with the McCanns."
The trial continues.
