A Polish woman, who asserted she was Madeleine McCann, reportedly watched a Netflix documentary about the missing British child more than a hundred times, according to a former confidant.

Julia Wandelt, 24, audibly gasped in court yesterday when a jury found her not guilty of stalking but guilty of harassing Kate and Gerry McCann at Leicester Crown Court.

Throughout a five-week trial, Wandelt faced accusations of stalking the McCanns over the course of nearly three years. Allegedly, she sent messages, left voicemails, and called them, demanding a DNA test while claiming she was their missing daughter.

She received a six-month jail sentence, although deportation proceedings are reportedly underway, given that she had already spent nine months in custody awaiting trial. The decision now lies with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

Additionally, a restraining order was placed on Wandelt and her co-defendant, 61-year-old Karen Spragg. This order prevents both from contacting the McCanns or publishing any information about them, as Spragg was found to support Wandelt’s conspiracy theories.

Spragg was acquitted of all charges related to stalking and harassment.

Wandelt’s family say her feverish obsession was fuelled by online conspiracy theorists in a campaign which eventually saw their daughter confront the McCanns at their family home. 

And now, a former friend of Wandelt’s who previously backed the 24-year-old in her claims of being Madeleine McCann, alleged she watched a documentary about the McCann family several times while she lived in her guesthouse in early 2023. 

Wandelt (pictured) was found guilty of harassing the missing Madeleine McCann’s parents today after claiming she was their daughter, who has been missing since May 2007

Dr Fia Johansson worked with Julia Wandelt before Wandelt started her harassment of the McCanns 

Madeleine was three years old when she vanished during a family holiday to The Algarve  in May 2007

Fia Johansson, who claims many titles on her social media such as ‘psychic detective’, repeated Wandelt’s claims about her identity online to her millions of followers on TikTok and Instagram. 

Until a DNA test in 2023 proved the Polish native’s claims were fake. Johansson was then quick to say she had never believed she had been Madeleine. 

The 43-year-old recently alleged to The Sun that Wandelt watched a documentary about the McCann family more than a hundred times while she lived in her guesthouse for three weeks in early 2023. 

‘She lived in my guesthouse with her own TV, but my housekeeper and nanny told me she was just watching crime documentaries and watched the McCann one 100 times,’ Johansson claimed.

‘She had been studying the McCann case for years and years since 2021; she had a whole file with evidence from the UK and Portuguese police investigations stored on her phone.

She also alleged her housekeeper found Wandelt’s medical documents as well as a trove of childhood photos, on an iPhone purchased by Johansson, stuffed under the mattress where the Polish woman stayed.

The documents are said to detail the 24-year-old’s vaccination history, health concerns and height, according to the newspaper. 

Kate and Gerry McCann both gave evidence from behind a screen at the trial, where they said: ‘Despite the jury’s guilty verdict of harassment, we take no pleasure in the result. Like most people, we did not want to go through a court process and only wanted the harassment to stop’

The 43-year-old (pictured) recently alleged to The Sun that Wandelt watched a documentary about the McCann family more than a hundred times while she lived in her guesthouse for three weeks in early 2023. 

She also claimed to have her housekeeper found Wandelt’s medical documents as well as a trove of childhood photos on an iPhone purchased by Johansson stuffed under the mattress where the Polish woman stayed 

Wandelt told the court during the trial that she believed herself to be the missing toddler who went missing from the Portugues resort of Praia de Luz in 2007. 

Her barrister also claimed she was was ‘vulnerable’ and her behaviour was that of a ‘rather sad and pathetic young woman’ acting out of ‘desperation’ because she believed her parents had lied about who she was.  

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Wandelt’s father Jacek, a 60-year-old radiologist, revealed she changed after being abused by a relative. 

He recalled the last time he saw her when she told him: ‘Daddy, I love you, but you are not my dad. I am Madeleine McCann.’

Her devastated family had, by that point, already tried to voice their fears after her online ‘I am Madeleine’ campaign garnered mass attention.

They said in a statement: ‘She always wanted to be popular. What’s happening now has given her one million followers. We’re scared.’

Meanwhile, Spragg’s defence team argued she was simply trying to detect a crime while on trial, accused of harassing and stalking the McCanns. She was acquitted of both charges.

However, she was handed the same restraining order with Mrs Justice Cutts saying the care worker from Cardiff ‘enjoyed the drama’ and supported Wandelt while ‘indulging in her conspiracy theories’.

The grandmother had begun communicating with Wandelt online after watching her videos where she presented ‘evidence’ suggesting she was Madeleine. 

She then arranged to take the 24-year-old to the McCanns home to demand a DNA test, where she shouted at Mrs McCann, accusing her of not wanting to find her daughter.

Julia Wandelt, 24, gasped as a jury convicted her of tormenting Kate and Gerry McCann in a campaign that began on the internet but resulted in her turning up at the family’s home

Sentencing, the judge accepted that Wandelt, who was abused by her step-grandfather aged nine, had a difficult childhood but that did not justify the way she behaved.

Mrs Justice Cutts said her ‘constant pestering, badgering and eventually attendance at their home address on a dark evening in December was unwarranted, unkind, and as the jury have now found, criminal’.

She added: ‘They (the McCanns) were entitled to refuse to engage with you, particularly in the sad circumstances in which they live with the disappearance of Madeleine.’

The judge said Wandelt believed she was the victim, before telling the Polish woman: ‘You are not.’ 

The court heard a DNA comparison between Wandelt and Madeleine, from a pillow case at her Leicestershire home, proved conclusively that Wandelt was not her.

Wandelt also called and messaged Mrs McCann more than 60 times on April 13 last year and wrote her a letter addressed ‘Mom’, signing it ‘Madeleine’. 

She also contacted the couple’s twins, Sean and Amelie, their friends and other family members and turned up at a vigil for Madeleine, demanding a DNA test.

Jurors were told that, from 2022, Wandelt began to make attempts ‘to persuade anybody who was prepared to listen that she was Madeleine McCann’, believing she had been abducted and brought up by a couple who were not her real parents.

She utilised social media with twin accounts on Instagram and TikTok, both called @iammadeleinemccann, where she uploaded ‘evidence’ to support her claims, along with pictures comparing her face with Madeleine’s and that of her siblings and parents.

Wandelt also claimed to have memories of growing up in the McCann household, and, particularly distressing, memories of being abducted, which she also shared online.

She has appeared on various YouTube shows discussing her claims and, incredibly, gave an interview from prison while awaiting trial. 

As a result, prosecutors took the highly unusual step of attempting to ban all reporting of the trial in part due to Wandelt’s ‘significant social media platform’.

The jury was told at the outset of the trial that the disappearance of Madeleine brought ‘many tragic consequences’ for her parents, including their ‘inability to escape the glare of publicity that came with that tragedy’.

Mr and Mrs McCann, who both gave evidence from behind a screen at the trial, said: ‘Despite the jury’s guilty verdict of harassment, we take no pleasure in the result. Like most people, we did not want to go through a court process and only wanted the harassment to stop.

‘The decision to prosecute was taken by the Crown Prosecution Service, based on the evidence gathered by the police.

‘We hope Ms Wandelt will receive the appropriate care and support she needs, and any vulnerability will not be exploited by others. If anyone has new evidence relating to Madeleine’s disappearance, please pass this on to the police.’