Alleged stalkers waited outside McCanns' home, court is told

A WOMAN accused of stalking the McCanns turned up at their family home and signed a letter addressed to them as Madeleine, a court has heard.

- SOPHIE ROBINSON

Karen Spragg, from Caerau, Cardiff, arrives at Leicester Crown Court

(JACOB KING)

Jurors heard Julia Wandelt, 24, from Lubin in southwest Poland, who claimed to be the missing girl, and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, who is from Cardiff, discussed stealing bags of rubbish from the family’s home to get DNA samples.

Wandelt and Spragg, of Caerau Court Road, in Caerau, both deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.

Continuing the prosecution's opening at Leicester Crown Court yesterday, Michael Duck KC said Mrs McCann was “unnerved” when they both waited outside her home last year, were “banging on the door” and “tried to force a letter” into Mr McCann’s hand.

Mr Duck told the jury: “She told Julia Wandelt and Karen Spragg they were causing distress and they should leave the property.

“Whatever they suggest are their beliefs, they do not afford someone the right to lie in wait for their targets, outside their own home, and enforce their will upon them.

“That is precisely what happened.” Mr Duck said when Mrs McCann managed to get into her house, she recalls Wandelt trying to stop her closing the door.