The woman who proclaimed, “I am Madeleine,” has finally heard her verdict.
In this special episode of True Criminals Briefings, hosts Martin Brunt and Helen Fospero uncover the extraordinary and unsettling story of Julia Wandelt, the young Polish woman who shocked the world by claiming she was Madeleine McCann, the British child who vanished from a Portuguese resort in 2007.
What began as an internet frenzy ended in a Leicester courtroom. After months of speculation and global attention, a jury found Julia Wandelt guilty of harassment against Kate and Gerry McCann, but not guilty of stalking. The court heard that her repeated visits, letters and online messages had caused serious distress to the McCann family. DNA testing provided conclusive evidence that she was not Madeleine McCann, closing one of the strangest chapters in the case’s long history.
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Connect with Martin Brunt
Follow Martin on Twitter at @skymartinbrunt. Discover more about his career and the cases he’s covered by reading his book, No One Got Cracked Over the Head for No Reason: Dispatches from a Crime Reporter, available here: https://amzn.eu/d/g1WisSY.
Connect with Helen Fospero
Follow Helen on Instagram at @helenfospero and check out her podcast, The Convex Conversation, here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-convex-conversation/id1510209575.
Credits
True Criminals is produced by Audio Bleach Global.
Visit www.audiobleachglobal.com/truecriminals for more information.
Executive Producer: Lee Mann.
Producer: Russell Barnes.
Audio Production: Andrew Chappell.
Music Composition:
Chap Mannequin.
Artwork: Bleached.
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