Polish woman on trial for stalking Madeleine McCann's parents

A 24-year-old Polish woman accused of stalking Madeleine McCann’s parents told a British court on Monday that she still questions her own identity and sought answers after recalling childhood abuse and finding similarities between her experiences and details in the long-running missing-persons case. Julia Wandelt gave evidence at Leicester Crown Court as she and a co-defendant face charges alleging they repeatedly contacted Kate and Gerry McCann and others between June 2022 and February this year.

Prosecutors say Wandelt peddled the suggestion that she was Madeleine McCann, who vanished aged three during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007, by sending emails and messages, making phone calls and turning up at the McCanns’ home. The jury heard allegations that she repeatedly contacted the family, at one point making dozens of calls and messages in a single day, confronted a family member at a vigil and reached out to Madeleine’s sister online.

Wandelt, from Lubin in southwest Poland, denied acting for attention or financial gain and told jurors her driving motive was to find out who she is. “I just wanted to find out who I am,” she said. She described having almost no memories of...