Polish woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann is ARRESTED as she touches down in the UK

By JAMES FIELDING

Published: 21:04 GMT, 19 February 2025 | Updated: 21:16 GMT, 19 February 2025

A Polish woman who claims she is Madeleine McCann has tonight been arrested moments after landing in Britain. 

Police swooped on Julia Wandelt at Bristol Airport and held her on suspicion of stalking and harassing Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann. 

The 23-year-old – who had just flown in from Wroclaw in Poland – had been due to meet a friend, who lives in Cardiff, when she was surrounded by officers in front of stunned passengers.

The friend – who is thought to be aged in her 60s – was also arrested and taken away.

Wandelt believes she is Madeleine and says she has recently taken a DNA test which has been examined by a specialist in America and linked her to Kate and Gerry.

Wandelt – known as Julia Wendell – became an internet sensation in February 2023 when she posted to Instagram under the account name ‘@IAmMadeleineMcCann’.

She has appeared on U.S talk show ‘Dr Phil’ to discuss the far-fetched possibility that she is Madeleine, who vanished aged three after being snatched by an intruder who broke into her family’s holiday villa in Praia de Luz in Portugal in 2007.

She this week took to her new social media account, ‘@AmIJuliaWandelt’, to share the ‘results’ of a fresh DNA test that she said Kate and Gerry ‘refused’ to participate in.

Julia Wandelt became an internet sensation in February 2023 when she posted to Instagram under the account name ‘@IAmMadeleineMcCann’

Madeleine McCann (pictured), then 3, vanished during a family holiday to Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007, which would now make her 21 – two years younger than Wandelt

Police swooped on Wandelt at Bristol Airport and held her on suspicion of stalking and harassing Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann (pictured)

She this week took to her new social media account, ‘@AmIJuliaWandelt’, to share the ‘results’ of a fresh DNA test that she said Kate and Gerry ‘refused’ to participate in.

The results, she said, were submitted to a ‘world expert’ who compared them to the crime scene following Madeleine McCann’s 2007 disappearance in Portugal. 

She alleges experts have also matched her eyes, teeth and voice with those of the missing girl.

Wandelt’s representative, Surjit Singh Clair, confirmed news of the arrest this evening and said: ‘I’m trying to find out what’s happened but it appears Julia has been arrested at Bristol Airport this evening just after she got off the plane.

‘The police have reportedly arrested her on an allegation of stalking and harassing the McCanns.’

Ms Wandelt previously told the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring, how she was sexually abused as a young child, and said she first started believing she was Madeleine McCann after seeing resemblances between sketches of suspects and her abuser.

She claimed this led to her suffering from gaps in her memory which caused her to become suspicious about her upbringing after her parents dismissed questions on whether she was adopted.

Ms Wandelt also said she was never shown photos of herself in her early years or a birth certificate, but her parents had quickly refuted this and provided evidence.

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Polish woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann is ARRESTED as she touches down in the UK

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