Overview
- After a multi-week trial at Leicester Crown Court, jurors found 24-year-old Julia Wandelt guilty of harassing the McCann family and she was sentenced to six months, credited as time served.
- The court imposed an injunction requiring her deportation to Poland and barring her from entering Leicestershire, where the McCann family lives.
- The jury acquitted Wandelt of the separate stalking charge following evidence that did not meet the legal threshold for that offense.
- Prosecutors detailed manipulated images, a 2023 Instagram account, and persistent contacts with the family, while forensic testing showed no genetic link to Madeleine.
- Wandelt was arrested in February at Bristol Airport after arriving from Wrocław; reporting differs on co-defendant Karen Spragg’s verdict, and the wider McCann investigation remains unresolved with Christian Brückner still uncharged.