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An individual from Poland who claimed to be the missing girl "maintained that false narrative" and stalked the missing girl's parents by dispatching electronic messages, placing telephone calls and appearing at their address, a court has heard.

The first defendant and the second defendant conducted a "systematic intimidation", Leicester Crown Court heard, and in Ms Wandelt's case, that lasted for two and a half years.

On Monday, the court heard Ms Wandelt repeatedly claimed she was the missing child and was taken and taken to the European nation.

The first accused and Ms Wandelt each contest a count of stalking resulting in serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and early this year.

Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 - at the three years old during a vacation in Portugal - is among the most widely reported missing child cases and continues unresolved.

The prosecutor also mentioned the international focus that the disappearance had brought on the family.

"Among numerous tragic consequences for Madeleine's parents has been their constant inability to avoid the spotlight of publicity that accompanied that tragedy.

"The attention they have received has not always been compassionate, sometimes quite the opposite.

"There continues to exist a group of individuals who continue to fail to recognize their plight and perpetuate unfounded claims.

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

Increasing Actions

Testimony revealed from mid-2022, the defendant had begun to speak to "any willing listener" that she was the missing child.

Legal authorities said that, in early 2023, Ms Wandelt was in communication with a organization in Poland created to help with historic missing persons cases and provide assistance and advice to people seeking those who had gone missing.

According to court testimony, Ms Wandelt first claimed she was the disappeared child from Germany.

But after these claims were dismissed by the organization, Ms Wendalt then contacted the group with a belief she could be Acacia Bishop - a missing baby from the American state in the US - before messaging them about her persistent claim she was Madeleine McCann.

'Did Not Deter'

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

A 20-minute call to the switchboard resulted in a report back from the health service representative to the investigation team, the UK inquiry into the vanishing.

Court proceedings revealed the defendant made further attempts to reach out to officials and then Mr McCann directly via email in mid-2023.

In one email, she wrote: "It's possible I am your daughter, there's a chance I'm her."

She continued people were "trying to cover up the case" and claimed there were resemblances between her and the child, including having marks in the identical locations.

But her attempts went without response, which the prosecutor said "failed to discourage" the defendant - who then made communication with Madeleine's younger sister the sibling via online platforms.

Telling her she was her "only hope", she sent doctored images to show they were "somehow related" and claimed to have recollections of events prior to disappearance, the court heard.

These assertions, the court heard, were restated in this year when Ms Wendalt is alleged to have "repeatedly" messaged the mother's mobile over the course of a day - referring to her as "mother", claiming to recall feeding Madeleine's younger brother Sean, of playing ring a roses in the back garden of the family's home in the Leicestershire village, Leicestershire, and of the night the disappearance occurred.

In one message, she stated: "I recall you came to my room before the incident, rubbed my head and said 'I love you and I will find you'."

The trial of Ms Wendalt, of Jana Kochanowskiego in Lubin, Poland, and Ms Spragg, of a location in Cardiff, continues.