In a courtroom revelation that has once again thrust the decades-old disappearance of Madeleine McCann into the public spotlight, a senior British detective has detailed how he deliberately broke long-standing police protocol in a calculated gamble that ultimately delivered scientific certainty: the young Polish woman who had relentlessly insisted she was the missing child was proven beyond any doubt not to be Madeleine. The testimony, delivered at Leicester Crown Court, painted a picture of an extraordinary and emotionally charged decision made not for investigative gain in the still-open missing persons inquiry but solely in the hope of ending a campaign of harᴀssment that had left the McCann family living in fear. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, the senior investigating officer for Operation Grange, the Metropolitan Police inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance, told the jury that Julia Wandelt, 24, had been one of thirteen individuals who over the years had come forward claiming to be the little girl who vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007 when she was just three years old. Cranwell explained that the force’s established position was clear and deliberate: DNA samples would never be taken from such claimants unless there was already a strong, evidence-based belief that the person might genuinely be Madeleine.

The reason, he said, was simple and protective. Public knowledge that police were routinely testing random individuals who merely ᴀsserted they were the missing child would almost certainly trigger a flood of further claims, each one potentially requiring resources and each one risking renewed emotional trauma for Kate and Gerry McCann and their twin children Sean and Amelie. Approaching the family itself to seek permission for such a test, he added, carried its own grave risks of raising false hopes that could prove psychologically devastating if the result was negative. In Wandelt’s case the physical and chronological mismatches were already obvious. She bore little resemblance to the child last seen in 2007 and was two years older than Madeleine would have been. Yet when Cranwell learned that Leicestershire Police were preparing to arrest Wandelt on suspicion of stalking the McCann family, he made an exception. He authorised that a DNA sample be taken at the point of arrest specifically so that a comparison could be run against the reference profile held for Madeleine. The result, he told the court, was conclusive. Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann. In April of this year Cranwell visited Wandelt while she was still in custody and informed her of the scientific finding in plain terms. “You are not Madeleine McCann,” he said. Her response, according to his evidence, was to ask whether he really wanted to find Madeleine.

He replied that he did. Even then, Cranwell told the jury, he suspected that Wandelt would never fully accept the laboratory evidence and would instead allege that the sample had been tampered with. The harᴀssment campaign that led to the DNA test and the subsequent charges had been prolonged and deeply unsettling. Between 2022 and earlier this year Wandelt, together with her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, bombarded the McCann family with hundreds of telephone calls, text messages, voicemails and letters. The pair also appeared at the family’s home demanding a DNA test. The court has already heard how the contacts became increasingly bizarre, including plans to retrieve Kate McCann’s DNA by searching through household rubbish bins and by taking cutlery from restaurants where the family had eaten. Prosecutors have described the behaviour as creepy and deeply disturbing, leaving the McCanns frightened and distressed. Both Wandelt and Spragg deny a single count of stalking. The trial continues.

The decision by Cranwell to authorise the DNA comparison stands as a rare departure from the carefully managed boundaries of Operation Grange, an investigation that has already cost many millions of pounds and has spanned multiple countries and countless false leads. By choosing to test Wandelt against protocol, the detective sought to close one particular avenue of distress for a family that has lived under public scrutiny and private grief for nearly two decades. The scientific result may have ended any residual possibility that Wandelt could be Madeleine, yet the court proceedings themselves demonstrate that the emotional and practical impact of her actions has not been so easily erased. For the McCanns the ordeal of repeated intrusion into their lives, the need to engage with police and the courts, and the knowledge that another individual had constructed an elaborate fantasy around their daughter’s disappearance have added a further layer of suffering to a tragedy that began on a Portuguese holiday in 2007 and has never truly ended. Cranwell’s evidence underscores both the lengths to which investigators will go to protect the integrity of the inquiry and the human cost of maintaining that integrity when confronted with individuals whose beliefs are impermeable to evidence. The jury must now weigh the full picture of the alleged campaign and decide whether the actions of Wandelt and Spragg crossed the legal threshold into criminal stalking. Whatever the eventual verdict, the DNA finding itself remains an unambiguous scientific fact: the woman who arrived at the McCann home demanding recognition as their lost daughter is not Madeleine McCann, and the police officer who authorised the test did so knowing the decision would set no precedent yet hoping it might finally bring one family’s unwanted contact to an end.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/14/secret-dna-test-confirmed-alleged-stalker-was-not-madeleine-mccann-says-officer