Woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann found guilty of harassing family

Julia Wandel flew from Poland to England and drove to the McCanns’ home, where she demanded they submit to a DNA test after claiming to be their missing daughter.

A Polish woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann, a British girl who disappeared in 2007 while on a family vacation in Portugal, has been found guilty of harassing the family of the missing girl.

Julia Wandel, also known as Julia Wandelt, first claimed to be McCann in 2023 when she posted numerous pieces of “evidence” to social media, most of which were side-by-side comparisons of similar physical characteristics between her and McCann.

Wandel flew from Poland to England and drove to the McCanns’ home, where she demanded they submit to a DNA test in December 2024.

In February, Wandel was arrested and accused of stalking McCann’s family by contacting them incessantly and turning up at their home in the U.K. She was charged with stalking four members of the McCann family — parents Gerry and Kate, and twin siblings Sean and Amelie — throughout 2024 and into 2025. She was also alleged to have paid unwanted and unsolicited visits to their home twice, in May and December of last year.

On Friday, a jury in Leicester Crown Court in England unanimously decided Wandel was not guilty of stalking, but was guilty of harassment.  She was sentenced to six months in prison by Justice Johannah Cutts, who said Wandel had already been in police custody for longer than that after her arrest in February.

The judge addressed Wandel as she delivered her sentencing remarks, the BBC reports.

Cutts said she accepted evidence of Wandel being abused as a child, adding that she did “not have an easy childhood.”

“But that does not justify the way you behaved,” she said. “It has been confirmed in this case you are not Madeleine McCann. There was not proper or logical basis for this.”