Polish woman claiming she is Madeleine McCann charged after being arrested at UK airport
A Polish woman who claimed she might be Madeleine McCann has been charged with stalking after being arrested when she arrived in the UK via Bristol Airport earlier this week.
A spokesperson for Leicestershire Police said: "A woman has been charged with stalking offences following her arrest at Bristol Airport on Wednesday (19 February).
"Julia Wandel – also known as Julia Wandelt – 23, of Lubin, Poland, has been charged with four counts of stalking.
"Two counts relate to offences between 2 May 2024 and 15 February 2025, a third count relates to offences between 3 January 2024 and 21 April 2024, and the fourth count for offences between 27 November 2024 and 29 December 2024. She has been remanded in custody to appear at Leicester Magistrates’ Court today (21 February)."
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The police force added that a 60-year-old individual from Wales who was also arrested on suspicion of stalking has since been released on police bail.
February 2023 - Julia Wandelt's initial claims
Julia Wandelt gained viral fame two years ago when she posted her claims that she might be Madeleine McCann onto the Instagram account @iammadeleinemccan.
Also going by the names Julia Faustyna or Julia Wendell, she claimed that she couldn't remember much of her childhood but had some memories of a beach, and also claimed to have a freckle on her leg like McCann.
Both she and McCann had coloboma of the iris, a rare condition that only affects one in every 10,000 babies.
She also claimed that her age at the time, 21, might be incorrect as at the time she made the claims Madeleine McCann would have been 19-years-old.
Wandelt claimed that her parents struggled to show her pictures from her childhood and didn't directly answer her questions, instead dismissing her concerns that she might be adopted.
In response, her parents released the following statement: "For us as a family it is obvious that Julia is our daughter, granddaughters, sister, niece, cousin and step niece. Threats to our address from Julia, her lies and manipulations, activity on the internet. The interest won’t forget, and it’s obvious that Julia isn’t Maddie. We are devastated at this current situation."
April 2023 - The DNA test on Dr Phil
The Polish woman went on American reality show Dr Phil for a DNA test, with plans to announce the results in front of his audience.
Once the tests were done, it was announced that Wandelt was 'absolutely 100 percent from Poland'.
Dr Fia Johansson, psychic medium and Wandelt's representative at the time, said: "She is a small percentage of Lithuanian and Russian, but the test results show she is Polish. We learned a few things, one being that Julia’s mum is in fact now believed to be her mum, so she is not Madeleine McCann."
Wandelt later apologised to Kate and Gerry McCann,
She said: "I used this sentence to create a [name] for my old instagram account, it was my mistake and I know it and I apologise for that because I should use [the] words ‘Am I Madeleine McCann’, not ‘I am’.
"So it was my fault and it wasn’t my intention to bring sadness or another negative emotions to anyone, especially to McCann family. My main purpose was always to find out who I am and what exactly happened in my very hurtful past.”
She said she went public with her suspicions because 'nobody helped me with finding the truth earlier' and suggested that her birth certificate might be forged.
January 2024 - Wandelt says she regrets her actions
Speaking to the BBC in January of the following year, Wandelt said she 'never meant to hurt anyone' and regretted what had happened.
She claimed that she had 'wanted to know the truth' about who she was and said she hadn't made her claims to try and gain fame.
Wandelt told the BBC that if she could go back in time she would never have made her profile, having received abuse on social media from people after it was revealed that she was not Madeleine McCann.
The Polish woman said that there had still been some followers who stuck with her, despite the DNA results.
February 2025 - The arrest
Two women were arrested, one of them Julia Wandelt, by police after arriving by plane into Bristol.
At the time Leicestershire Police said: "Last night (Wednesday 19 February) 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."
Wandelt has now been charged, while the other woman was released on police bail.
Topics: UK News, Madeleine McCann, Crime
Joe Harker