Words by ITV News Producer Lucy Lewis

Julia Wandelt was “looking for fame” by claiming to be Madeleine McCann, a Polish missing persons charity has said.

There were also doubts about whether she really believed she was the missing girl.

Wandelt, 24, was found guilty at Leicester Crown Court of harassing Kate and Gerry McCann, but was found not guilty of stalking.

Missing Years Ago director Iwona Modliborska told ITV News that Madeleine – who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 – was the third missing child that Julia Wandelt had claimed to be.

“At the beginning … she was sending us information about two missing girls – Inge from Germany and Acacia from US,” Ms Modliborska said.

Inge Gehricke went missing from a family barbecue in Germany in 2015, while Acacia Bishop was kidnapped from her great-grandmother’s house in Utah in the United States in 2003.

Ms Modliborska said that when she proved to Wandelt that she couldn’t be the missing girls based on birthmarks, she started asking for more information about DNA tests and who pays for them.

A couple of weeks later, Wandelt contacted the charity again – this time claiming to be Madeleine McCann.

Ms Modliborska said she “told her to give up”.

“I wanted to knock this out of her head. I told her that there was no similarity between them,” she added.

Wandelt repeated the claims when she appeared on the American television show Dr Phil in March 2023, telling host Phil McGraw that her mother had “refused” to show her her birth certificate.

In the trial, prosecutors told the jury that Julia Wandelt and her co-defender Karen Spragg “tormented” the McCanns by calling them and sending numerous messages.

Wandelt told the family she “really believed” she was Madeleine.

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One message to Kate McCann said: “Please don’t think Madeleine is dead. This is a chance. It will cost you nothing to talk to me.”

In court, Wandelt denied being a liar and an attention-seeker, but Ms Modliborska says she doesn’t believe her.

“She was looking for fame, she thought that this will bring her fame. This was her objective. I don’t think that she believed she was Madeleine McCann,” she said.

Asked if she believes Julia Wandelt knew the distress she was causing through her actions, Ms Modliborska said: “Every normal person is aware that there is a family who for years has been struggling, who has been searching for their child, who suffer and live a nightmare.

“Everybody knows that, how could she not.”