Kate McCann told a jury she had been left “distressed” and fearful by a young woman who for nearly three years called, messaged and even appeared at the family home while insisting she was the couple’s missing daughter, Madeleine, before the defendant broke down in the dock and cried, “Why are you doing this to me?” as court officers led her away. Giving evidence at Leicester Crown Court from behind a screen, McCann described repeated contacts from the Polish national Julia Wandelt, 24, who prosecutors say embarked on a sustained course of conduct with a second woman, 61-year-old Karen Spragg, that caused “serious alarm or distress” to McCann and her husband, Gerry, between 2022 and early 2025. Both defendants deny stalking. The outburst came as McCann finished an account of how the claim to be her daughter escalated from messages and letters to an uninvited encounter on her doorstep.
McCann said the most upsetting moments were when Wandelt addressed her as “Mum,” including in a letter signed “Madeleine x.” She told jurors she had tried to absorb the communications coolly but that the repeated use of that word “was deeply unsettling” and at times “very distressing.” She explained that while police had told the family the claim was false, the persistence of the allegations, and their emotional precision, occasionally caused a flash of doubt “in a weak moment.” She said the letter and a stream of voicemails and emails left her irritable, unable to concentrate and worried about the effect on her family.
The court heard that on 7 December 2024 the two defendants travelled to the McCanns’ home, where, according to the prosecution, Wandelt asked again for a DNA test and tried to keep McCann talking in the doorway. McCann told the jury she was frightened by the unannounced visit and attempted to close the door. Gerry McCann, who also gave evidence, said he confronted the pair and told the younger woman directly: “You’re not Madeleine,” adding that he had already been “very confident” from photographs that the claim was baseless. An audio clip played to jurors captured a tense exchange on the drive where he pleaded with them to stop.
As Kate McCann’s account concluded, reporters in court said Wandelt sobbed loudly and shouted, “Why are you doing this to me?” before she was escorted from the courtroom for a short adjournment. When proceedings resumed, the judge reminded jurors that McCann was entitled to give evidence from behind a screen and that no inference should be drawn from courtroom security measures. The exchange underscored the raw intersection of a family’s 18-year ordeal and an allegation that an outsider had appropriated their missing child’s identity.
Prosecutors allege that Wandelt’s contacts with the family began “about three years ago” and quickly intensified, with dozens of calls and messages on single days, written notes invoking memories of Madeleine’s early childhood, and social media posts addressed to Kate McCann as “Mum.” McCann said the persistent communications felt like an intrusion into the family’s grief and privacy, adding that an attempt to reach their daughter Amelie was the “final straw” that prompted a formal complaint to police. The couple’s twins, Sean and Amelie, now 20, were due to give evidence about the impact on their household.
The case turns on whether the defendants’ conduct crossed the legal threshold for stalking causing serious alarm or distress, a charge that requires proof of a course of behaviour that had substantial adverse effects on day-to-day activities or mental health. McCann told the jurors that the volume and tone of the contacts left her anxious and preoccupied, recounting days when her phone “would ring and ring and ring with no caller ID.” Gerry McCann described watching his wife become “very distressed,” and said he intervened on at least one call to tell the caller to stop. He said repeated impostor claims “pull on your heartstrings” but also damage the ongoing investigation by sowing confusion and diverting attention from verifiable lines of inquiry.
Wandelt and Spragg were arrested earlier this year after what police said was a pattern of unwanted contact and in-person approaches that continued despite warnings. Reporting restrictions were not sought for the trial, and details of the defendants’ ages and the dates of the alleged offending were confirmed in open court. Both women pleaded not guilty. Wandelt’s solicitor has not made a public statement beyond entering her plea; in court she sat beside Spragg, often looking down at her hands as witnesses spoke, before the emotional outburst that briefly halted proceedings.
Kate McCann’s testimony sketched the line between sympathy for a person she said may be unwell and the harm caused by the claims. She told jurors she had tried to extend understanding when the messages first appeared, but that any empathy was overwhelmed by fear and anger when the contacts multiplied and moved into the family’s physical space. She added that receiving a letter addressed “Dear Mom” and signed “Madeleine” was “a violation,” and that the doorstep encounter months later felt like an escalation. Gerry McCann echoed that view, saying he was “appalled” when he learned that Wandelt had tried to contact their children.
Several outlets covering the proceedings reported that a DNA test had already disproven Wandelt’s assertion she was Madeleine, a position McCann said she and her husband had reached earlier by sight alone. The family told the court they had informed police they did not believe the claim from the outset and had tried to avoid engagement, but that the intensity of the messages and the doorstep encounter made non-engagement impossible. McCann added that being forced to articulate, again, why someone was not her child had reopened difficult emotions.
The trial has also heard about the pressures of notoriety that have followed the family since May 2007, when three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while her parents dined nearby with friends. Asked by prosecutors about the effect of serial impostor claims, Gerry McCann told jurors: “We don’t know what happened to Madeleine, there’s no evidence to say she’s dead,” and that each false claim “inevitably pulls your heartstrings” while risking harm to work still underway elsewhere. The couple did not address, and the court did not explore, the separate German prosecution of a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance, which falls outside the scope of the Leicester case.
In a methodical account of the December doorstep episode, Gerry McCann said Spragg stood close to him in the drive and began speaking about secret societies as Wandelt repeated pleas for a DNA test. He said he reiterated that the claim was false and that the family did not consent to any further contact. Police were called soon after. Jurors heard that in previous messages Wandelt had referred to supposed memories from early childhood and to being trafficked, assertions the family said had no basis in evidence and were delivered in a tone calculated to provoke an emotional response.
Court reporters said McCann remained composed for most of her evidence, pausing occasionally to sip water and gather herself. She said she spoke partly for her children, who had “grown up under the shadow” of their sister’s disappearance, and partly to make clear to the defendants that their behaviour had consequences beyond the headlines. She added that she had agreed to appear only because she was promised measures—such as the use of a screen—that would allow her to testify without seeing the women in the dock. The judge told jurors such arrangements are common and intended to help witnesses give their best evidence.
Live updates from the court described the defendants sitting quietly during most of the session, conferring occasionally, and Wandelt appearing to weep as the evidence turned to the signed letter and to a message sent to Amelie. It was at the end of that passage that Wandelt became inconsolable and cried out before officers led her away by the elbows. Proceedings were adjourned briefly, then resumed with questions for Gerry McCann about the volume of calls and the effect on household routines. He said his wife had become jumpy when the phone rang with withheld numbers and that they had altered schedules in case the defendants returned.
Sky’s live blog summarised police evidence that Wandelt allegedly contacted Kate McCann up to 60 times in a single day and that she and Spragg travelled to the East Midlands together for the December visit. Prosecutors say the messages were part of a calculated campaign to force the family into an interaction or test; the defence has not yet set out its full case, but both women deny that their conduct amounted to stalking with serious alarm or distress. Jurors were told they will hear from additional witnesses before closing submissions next week.
The Times reported that McCann believed Wandelt may be suffering from mental-health difficulties, a point she raised while insisting that compassion could not erase the harm done. She told jurors that the family had considered whether a civil remedy might be more appropriate but that the scale and persistence of the behaviour, particularly the attempt to draw their adult children into contact, justified a criminal complaint. The Guardian’s account noted McCann’s description of feeling “violated” by the use of “Mum” and of how a split-second “conflicting thought” could intrude “even when your head knows it’s not true.”
Outside court there were no statements from the defendants’ representatives. A small crowd gathered at the steps, and a court usher reminded onlookers and media that jurors are not to be approached. The McCanns left without addressing reporters. Inside, the usher announced that the twins were due to testify later in the week, subject to scheduling, and that jurors should continue to avoid media coverage about the case. The judge thanked the panel for their attention and warned them not to research the matter online.
The legal test jurors must apply is narrow, and the evidence they have heard has been tightly focused on the defendants’ words and actions rather than on the broader history of the search for Madeleine. Still, the emotional context hung over the courtroom. McCann’s description of a stranger standing on her doorstep and asking for a DNA test touched a nerve that has been exposed since 2007. Gerry McCann’s summary—“We know she’s not our daughter”—landed as an attempt to protect what remains of their private life while affirming that the investigation continues elsewhere, in the hands of police and prosecutors in other jurisdictions.
The hearing continues, with both defendants on bail and under conditions that restrict contact with the McCanns. Court officials have set aside additional time in the list should the evidence overrun. For the family at the centre of the case, the trial amounts to a forced confrontation with an accusation that has shadowed them for years: that someone with no connection can enter their lives with a story they did not ask to hear and will not accept. McCann told the jurors she wanted the contacts to stop, nothing more and nothing less. The judge dismissed the panel shortly before 4 p.m. with a standard admonition to discuss the case only in the jury room.