A Polish woman who has claimed she could be Madeleine McCann has been arrested at Bristol airport on suspicion of stalking the missing girl’s parents.
A representative for Julia Wandelt - who has previously appeared on US talk show Dr Phil with her claim - said Leicester Police arrested the 23-year-old on Wednesday night, along with another woman.
Surjit Singh Clair said the allegation against Ms Wandelt was “nonsense”, and that the pair were travelling to Cardiff, where her friend lived.
“There’s not a lot I can say, it’s a legal matter,” he said. “I can confirm the arrest took place... on an allegation of stalking the McCanns, which isn’t true.”
Leicestershire Police said in a statement: “Last night two women were arrested at Bristol Airport as part of an ongoing investigation. A 23-year-old woman from Poland and a 60-year-old woman from Wales were arrested on suspicion of stalking involving serious alarm/distress. They both remain in custody and enquiries are continuing.”
Ms Wandelt’s lawyer David Wells confirmed he was representing her but declined to comment further.
Mr Clair said he understood Ms Wandelt had not yet been charged.
Madeleine McCann was just three years old when she disappeared from a holiday resort in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007 while her parents, Kate and Gerry, were dining with friends nearby.
Her disappearance has sparked long-running, global intrigue, and German prisoner Christian Brueckner was declared a prime suspect by Portuguese police in April 2022. However, a German prosecutor said late last year there was no prospect of Brueckner facing charges over Madeleine’s disappearance soon.
The website Find Madeleine posted in a update on December 31: “A big 'thank you' for the support and positivity we continue to receive.
“2024 like the year before it, seems to have passed by so quickly and whilst we still don't have any major news to report in the search for Madeleine, work continues behind the scenes. We have to believe that one day we will know.”
Appearing on the BBC Radio 4 podcast series ‘Why Do You Hate Me?’, early last year, Ms Wandelt explained she first became suspicious of her identity when she was 20-years-old and her family could not fill in gaps she had in her memories about her childhood.
She turned to the internet to scour missing person cases and came across the Madeleine McCann case. She became convinced she was the missing girl - driven by similarities of them both in sketches and also the fact they both had a rare eye abnormality that makes the iris appear keyhole shaped.
In an episode aired in March 2023, Ms Wandelt told US television talk show host Dr Phil McGraw her mother had refused to show her proof of her pregnancy and birth, which her family denied, saying “it’s obvious that Julia isn’t Maddie” in a statement to the show.
She apologised to Madeleine’s parents in January last year in a social media post after a DNA test in April 2023 proved she wasn’t Madeleine.
“I apologised to the McCanns because I don’t know them personally,” Ms Wandelt said. “I don’t know if they were watching this journey, if they were sad or whatever. And I just wanted to say sorry. Because every person can react in a different way and maybe it brought them more sadness,” she said.
However on her social media, she last week claimed to have acquired DNA testing linking her to Madeleine’s family.
Mr Clair told The Independent Ms Wandelt wasn’t “saying she’s Madeleine McCann” rather that a DNA test had linked her to the family.
