Alleged stalker sobs in court as McCann tells of 'distress'

A woman accused of stalking Madeleine McCann's mother, Kate McCann, shouted, “Why are you doing this to me?” as she was led from court yesterday.

- SOPHIE ROBINSON

Kate McCann appeared in the witness box at Leicester Crown Court, shielded from the dock by a curtain so she could not see defendants Julia Wendell, 24, also known as Julia Wandelt, and Karen Spragg, 61.

Both women have denied a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.

The judge told jurors that the use of a screen was “entirely usual” and did not reflect on the defendants in any way.

The court previously heard that Ms Wandelt, from southwest Poland, claimed to be Madeleine, who vanished from Portugal’s Algarve in 2007, just nine days from her fourth birthday. She had turned up at the McCanns’ family home and signed a letter addressed to them as the missing girl, the court heard.