Julia Wendelta 24-year-old Polish woman who I had been on trial for a month in it United Kingdomwas found guilty at Leicester Crown Court, central England, of harassment for falsely impersonating Madeleine «Maddie» McCann.
The three-year-old girl disappeared in 2007 while on holiday with his parents in the tourist resort of Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, south of Portugaland who has been presumed dead for a long time, according to investigators.
Wendelt was accused of harass the McCann family for a long time, even showing up at the door of his house. She was arrested by British police in February at Bristol airport, where he had just arrived from Wrocław with the intention of returning to the scene of the incident.
According to the research, He had been impersonating Maddie for some time.retouching images and claiming an alleged resemblance, before creating an Instagram account in 2023 and addressing directly the father, mother and even sister of the young protagonist of the famous unsolved case.
Madeleine «Maddie» McCann disappeared in 2007 while on holiday with her parents at the Praia da Luz resort in the Algarve, southern Portugal.According to the prosecution, everything was orchestrated by an excessive fascination and a credible economic motive. Karen Spragga 61-year-old woman from Cardiff, Wales, was also tried alongside her for alleged complicity. The sentence and planned restraining order will be determined by the judge at a later date.
Wendelt, whose attempt to impersonate Maddie McCann was definitively denied at trial thanks to a dna testwas found guilty of harassment, but acquitted of the harassment charge due to lack of evidence of blackmail.
She was sentenced to six months in prison – which she had already served in preventive detention -, in addition to a restraining order requiring her expulsion from the United Kingdom and her forced repatriation or secretwormewhich will prevent him from entering Leicestershire, where the McCanns reside.
National Associated Press Agency (ANSA) reported that the 24-year-old Polish woman was heard crying during the reading of the sentence, which took place an hour after the judge Johannah Cutts would plead guilty.
Suspicions and doubts: the release of the only known suspect
Meanwhile, the McCann case remains unsolved after the recent release prison in Germany Christian Brcknera 48-year-old German citizen who had previously resided in Portugal and who for years was identified as the only known suspect.
Christian Brueckner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, was released from prison.The man, a repeat sex offenderhas just served time in his country for abusing a 72-year-old woman in a separate court case, unrelated to the investigation into Maddie’s whereabouts.
Although the prosecution still suspects his possible involvement in the disappearance of the English girl, the evidence collected so far is not enough to file charges.
