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A Polish national who claimed to be the missing girl "pursued that myth" and stalked the missing girl's parents by dispatching electronic messages, making phone calls and appearing at their residence, a court has heard.

Karen Spragg and Julia Wandelt carried out a "systematic intimidation", Leicester Crown Court heard, and in one defendant's situation, that occurred over two and a half years.

At the trial's commencement, jurors were told Ms Wandelt repeatedly claimed she was the missing child and was taken and taken to the European nation.

Ms Spragg and the second accused each deny a charge of harassment resulting in significant distress and anxiety to Madeleine's parents between mid-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 one of the most extensively covered missing child cases and continues unresolved.

Legal counsel also mentioned the global attention that Madeleine's case had directed toward the parents.

"Among numerous tragic consequences for the McCann family has been their constant inability to escape the glare of media attention that came with that incident.

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

"There continues to exist a number of people who continue to fail to acknowledge their situation and perpetuate unfounded claims.

"Regrettably, these two defendants fall into that latter group."

Increasing Actions

The court heard from mid-2022, Ms Wandelt had started telling to "anyone who would care to listen" that she was the missing child.

Legal authorities said that, in January 2023, the accused was in contact with a Polish charity created to help with long-term disappearance incidents and offer support and advice to people looking for individuals who had gone missing.

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

But after these assertions were dismissed by the charity, Ms Wendalt then contacted the group with a belief she could be Acacia Bishop - a missing baby from Utah in the United States - before messaging them about her insistence she was the British missing child.

'Did Not Deter'

Her belief progressed to an effort to contact the medical facility where both the McCanns were employed.

A lengthy telephone conversation to the switchboard led to a notification from the NHS trust's communications manager to the investigation team, the British investigation into the vanishing.

The jury was told Ms Wandelt made further attempts to reach out to officials and then the father personally through electronic mail in June 2023.

In a message, she stated: "It's possible I am your daughter, it's possible I am the missing girl."

She added people were "attempting to conceal the story" and claimed there were similarities between her and the child, including having marks in the identical locations.

But her efforts went without response, which the prosecutor said "did not deter" Ms Wendelt - who then made communication with Madeleine's younger sister Amelie via online platforms.

Telling her she was her "sole chance", she transmitted altered photographs to show they were "somehow related" and asserted possessing recollections of events prior to disappearance, the court heard.

These claims, the court heard, were repeated in 2024 when Ms Wendalt is accused of "consistently" contacted Mrs McCann's cell phone over the course of a day - calling her "mommy", claiming to recall feeding the family's son the boy, of playing children's games in the back garden of the residence in Rothley, Leicestershire, and of the evening Madeleine was abducted.

In a communication, she stated: "I remember you visited my room before the incident, rubbed my head and said 'I care for you and I will find you'."

Court proceedings of Ms Wendalt, of an address in Lubin, the country, and Ms Spragg, of a location in Cardiff, continues.