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The mother of missing Madeleine McCann has described to a court how it was painful to listen to an alleged stalker call her “mum,” while claiming to be her missing daughter.

Testifying from behind a screen, McCann stated that the behavior of the 24-year-old defendant left her frightened and deeply troubled. The accused is said to have carried out a two-and-a-half year persistent stalking that ended with her arrest in early this year.

Wandelt is charged with frequently referring to Kate as “mum” on multiple occasions, while claiming she was the missing girl, who was three when she vanished during a trip with her parents in the Portuguese resort in 2007.

This included a written message signed “Madeleine x.”

This was one instance of a thing that was affecting me deeply,” McCann testified. “It’s clear the thing I desire above all … is for my daughter to be back and for Madeleine to be saying ‘mum’. And that was extremely painful for me.”

McCann continued, “Referring to me as ‘mum’ is difficult.”

Unexpected encounter outside the home

The court heard that the defendant and her alleged accomplice, a 61-year-old woman from Wales, had overwhelmed the family with repeated communications and were lingering outside their home on the evening of 7 December 2024.

As she exited her car by herself, she recalled a voice calling out in the darkness saying “Kate.”

“I knew it was someone behind me but I didn’t know who it was,” she said. “It startled me.”

Turning round, she identified the defendant “almost immediately” from pictures she had sent, she said. “Her image was firmly planted in my mind anyway because of all the communications,” she added.

“I was alarmed and when I realised who it was I felt quite distressed. I think I’d been anxious anyway with all the communication and it just bubbled up.”

She said she was able to enter inside the house despite Wandelt “reaching out trying to stop me closing the door.”

Demand for testing and fleeting uncertainty

Both women had been asking for a genetic analysis, something Kate clarified she would have been cannot perform without the involvement of the police, who had already ruled out the possibility that Wandelt was her daughter.

She admitted she had avoided encouraging the women, but confessed she had experienced a brief hesitation.

“I think because the ongoing contact was getting to be so much, a little bit of my brain was saying ‘what if?’, even though I knew …

“I guess having seen a photograph of her, and she’s Polish, nothing made any sense.

“I don’t know what Madeleine looks like now, but if I saw a photo of her, I would recognise her.

“When I say there was a doubt, it was minuscule.”

Gerry McCann testifies about that night

Gerry McCann was questioned regarding the same evening in the proceedings on Wednesday afternoon. He had come home after his wife to be confronted by the defendants, which he described as “very unpleasant.”

He also talked about being sure the accused was not his lost child and revealed that at a certain moment he had picked up the call to her.

“I can’t remember my precise phrasing but I said something like: ‘You’re not Madeleine, please cease contacting us’.”

He struggled to talk through the visible distress as he spoke about trying to shield his other two children from the spotlight brought by Madeleine’s case.

“Online platforms can be really damaging, all the horrible things that have been posted about us and nasty stuff online, so obviously we aimed to keep them safe from that,” he expressed.

Emotional testimony and dramatic incident

She had also been visibly moved earlier in the day when she explained it was only when Wandelt contacted their grown-up daughter Amelie that they had chosen to pursue things through the police. She spoke tearfully as she noted that her daughter and her twin brother Sean had had to face a lot.

The accused started crying from the dock in what appeared to be an attempt to make certain Kate could hear her. She was ushered to the rear of the enclosure, where she exclaimed: “Why are you doing this to me?” She was led through the exit leading towards the holding area and her crying could be audible resounding in the hallway.

Wandelt and Spragg deny the allegations against them.

Proceedings are ongoing.