Polish woman claiming to be Maddie McCann arrested

The young Polish woman who has long claimed to be Madeleine McCann has been arrested, just moments after arriving in the UK. 

Julie Wandelt, 23, was descended upon by police at Bristol Airport, with authorities holding her on suspicion of stalking and harassing Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann. 

Wandelt, 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 shocked passengers.

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

Wandelt's representative, Surjit Singh Clair, confirmed news of the arrest, saying, "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."

Wandelt has recently appeared back in the spotlight after a new DNA allegedly proves that she is Madeleine McCann. 

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After disappearing from the public eye in 2024, Wandelt has resurfaced online to share the “results” of a fresh DNA test she claimed were submitted to a “world expert”, who compared them to the crime scene following Madeleine’s disappearance.

In a series of posts in which she referred to Kate and Gerry McCann has “my parents”, Ms Wandelt said her “actual dna results show that I am part British, part Irish” and that genetic evidence “strongly supports that Gerry McCann could be Julia Wandelt’s biological father”. 

Ms Wandelt’s “source” claimed her DNA results were a “perfect match” to the samples taken from the scene of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Madeleine vanished at the age of three after being snatched by an intruder who broke into her family's holiday villa in Praia de Luz in Portugal in 2007.

Image credits: YouTube