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A Polish national who claimed to be the missing girl "pursued that myth" and stalked the child's family by dispatching electronic messages, making phone calls and appearing at their address, a trial was told.

Karen Spragg and the second defendant carried out a "systematic intimidation", Leicester Crown Court heard, and in one defendant's situation, that lasted for thirty months.

At the trial's commencement, the court heard the defendant consistently asserted she was Madeleine and was taken and transported to Poland.

Ms Spragg and Ms Wandelt each contest a count of stalking resulting in significant distress and distress to Madeleine's parents between June 2022 and early this year.

The child's vanishing in the year 2007 - at the age of three during a vacation in the European country - is among the most widely reported missing child cases and remains unsolved.

The prosecutor also spoke of the global attention that Madeleine's case had brought on the parents.

"One of many devastating outcomes for Madeleine's parents has been their constant inability to avoid the spotlight of publicity that accompanied that incident.

"The attention they have received has not always been sympathetic, at times quite the opposite.

"There continues to exist a number of people who persist in refusing to acknowledge their plight and spread unfounded claims.

"Regrettably, these two defendants belong to that second category."

Increasing Actions

The court heard from mid-2022, Ms Wandelt had begun to speak to "anyone who would care to listen" that she was Madeleine.

The prosecutor said that, in early 2023, Ms Wandelt was in contact with a organization in Poland established to assist with long-term disappearance incidents and offer support and advice to people seeking those who had disappeared.

Based on the prosecutor, Ms Wandelt initially said she was the disappeared child from Germany.

But after these claims were dismissed by the charity, the accused then contacted the charity with a belief she could be Acacia Bishop - a disappeared infant from the American state in the US - before contacting them about her persistent claim she was the British missing child.

'Failed to Stop'

Her belief escalated to an attempt to call the hospital where the parents were employed.

A lengthy telephone conversation to the switchboard resulted in a report back from the NHS trust's communications manager to Operation Grange, the British investigation into the vanishing.

The jury was told Ms Wandelt made further attempts to reach out to officials and then the father directly via email in mid-2023.

In a message, she wrote: "I could be your daughter, there's a chance I am the missing girl."

She continued people were "trying to cover up the case" and claimed there were resemblances between her and Madeleine, including having scars in the same places.

But her attempts went unanswered, which court officials said "failed to discourage" Ms Wendelt - who then made communication with Madeleine's younger sister Amelie via social media.

Telling her she was her "only hope", she sent doctored images to show they were "possibly connected" and claimed to have memories of events prior to disappearance, the trial was told.

These claims, the court heard, were repeated in 2024 when the defendant is alleged to have "consistently" messaged Mrs McCann's cell phone over the span of 24 hours - calling her "mommy", claiming to recall giving food to Madeleine's younger brother the boy, of engaging in ring a roses in the back garden of the family's home in the Leicestershire village, Leicestershire, and of the night Madeleine was abducted.

In a communication, she stated: "I recall you visited my bedroom before the incident, touched my hair and said 'I love you and I will find you'."

Court proceedings of the first defendant, of Jana Kochanowskiego in the Polish city, Poland, and the second defendant, of Caerau Court Road in Cardiff, continues.