‘Polish Maddie’ arrested on arrival in UK

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) – Julia Wandelt, a 23-year-old Polish woman who claims to be Madeleine McCann, a British girl who disappeared in Portugal in 2007, has been arrested and charged with stalking and harassing “Maddie's” parents, her legal representative, Surjit Singh Clair, said in an interview with UK radio station LBC.

“A 23-year-old Polish woman and a 60-year-old woman from Wales were arrested at Bristol Airport on suspicion of stalking related to serious harassment as part of an ongoing investigation,” Leicester Police Press Officer Matthew Cobb told Polish news site Onet on Thursday.

The Daily Mail and the LBC news service reported that Wandelt had flown from Wroclaw to Bristol to visit a friend.

According to The New York Post, she was surrounded by officers and handcuffed in front of other passengers.

The arrest of the "Polish Maddie" took place shortly after she had revealed the alleged results of a DNA test, which she said confirmed her relationship to the father of the missing British woman.

A 2023 study found that Julia is of Polish, Lithuanian and Romanian descent.

But the "Poland Madeleine McCann" is not letting up. She launched a collection for a polygraph examination.

"They presented me as a lunatic, which I am not," she said.

Wandelt became known in February 2023 when she created an Instagram account under the name "I Am Madeleine McCann." She claimed she had undergone a DNA test to confirm her relationship to Madeleine's father. The results were to be confirmed by an American specialist, Dr. Monte Miller, who indicated an "almost certain family connection."

Wandelt's parents strongly deny her claims. In 2023, they said they had evidence that Julia was their daughter, including photos and documents that Julia had taken from her family home. They emphasized that they had always tried to support their daughter, providing her with therapy and psychological help.

Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared from a resort in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, while her parents, Kate and Gerry, were dining with friends nearby.