The courtroom in Leicester has become the theatre of a bizarre and unsettling saga involving 24-year-old Julia Wandelt, a Polish national accused of stalking the family of Madeleine McCann, the British girl who vanished in Portugal in 2007.
Wandelt is charged with repeatedly contacting Madeleine's parents, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann, and her younger sister, Amelie McCann, claiming to be the missing child. The prosecution described her behaviour as a campaign that spanned years, involving messages, phone calls and uninvited visits to the McCanns' home, all of which left the family distressed and fearful.
