The jury is told that Miss Wandelt travelled from her home in Poland to the village of Rothley, in Leicestershire, to attend a vigil on 3 May 2024 in an attempt to meet the McCann family.

Up until now, Mr Duck KC said, her attempts to make contact had been via phone or social media.

"This was the last approach any parents would have wanted," he added.

The court heard the McCanns were not there for the vigil, but Miss Wandelt approached the village priest and Mrs McCann's great-aunt.

"She sought to persuade her desperate need to speak to the McCanns and handed her a letter to pass on," Mr Duck KC said.

"She then left the vigil but it seems she wasn't content with passing the message and the following day she went to the McCann's home address."

The jury is now hearing evidence from the prosecution that Miss Wandelt made further contact with Mrs McCann - who again did not respond.

Mr Duck KC said Mrs McCann informed officers working on Operation Grange - the investigation into Madeleine's disappearance - on 25 April 2024 about Miss Wandelt's repeated attempts to contact the family,

"Her behaviour did not stop," he added.

Mr Duck KC is now back on his feet to continue the prosecution opening.

He picks up with texts Miss Wandelt is said to have sent to Kate McCann, Madeleine's mother, on 13 April 2024, which were mentioned during yesterday's proceedings.

"She pursued further attempts to communicate and left a number of voicemail messages on [Mrs McCann's] telephone," he said.

The prosecutor added she "altered again her focus, no doubt frustrated by the lack of interaction" by Mrs McCann.

Moving on to texts sent to Madeleine's sister, Amelie McCann, he said Miss Wandelt urged her to speak to her parents and persuade them to talk to her.

"Having been rebuffed on many hundreds of occasions, she was aware of the stress it was causing," Mr Duck KC said.

Isaac Ashe
BBC News, at Leicester Crown Court

Miss Wandelt and Mrs Spragg are sitting a seat apart in the dock today after they were seen holding hands during yesterday's proceedings.

The courtroom is very busy again today, with both members of the public and press in attendance.

Here's a round-up of what was heard in court yesterday:

• There was a brief recess after Miss Wandelt stood in the dock and began to weep, when the prosecution said she was not Madeleine McCann
• The court heard from June 2022, Miss Wandelt had begun to speak to "anyone who would care to listen" that she was Madeleine
• In January 2023, Miss Wandelt was in contact with a Polish charity established to assist with historic missing persons cases and offer support and advice to people seeking those who had gone missing

• Miss Wandelt "sought to manipulate" information, including images, "to back up her unsustainable claims", including sending pictures to Madeleine's siblings, the jury was told
• Miss Wandelt tried to get through to Glenfield Hospital in Leicestershire and told the switchboard she was the missing child and later emailed Madeleine's father Gerry McCann telling him: "I could be your daughter."
• The court heard Miss Wandelt contacted Madeleine's sister Amelie and told her she had hypnosis sessions and had "flashbacks" and that she "knows so many things"
• The jury was also told Miss Wandelt obtained the phone number of Madeleine's mother Kate McCann, and sent her a number of messages
• The court was also played a voicemail she sent her lasting nearly two minutes telling her "don't give up on your daughter... call me, please"

The prosecution, opening its case at Leicester Crown Court, said Miss Wandelt claimed to be Madeleine McCann and "pursued that myth" by stalking the missing girl's parents by sending emails, making phone calls and turning up at their address.

The jury was told Miss Wandelt said she had been abducted and transported to Poland.

Michael Duck KC said Miss Wandelt and Mrs Spragg (pictured below) carried out a "campaign of harassment" - in Miss Wandelt's case, that was over two and a half years, the jury was told.

Image source, PA Media

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

We are restarting our coverage of the trial of two women, accused of stalking the family of Madeleine McCann, who went missing in Portugal in 2007.

The prosecution opened its case against Julia Wandelt, from Lubin in south-west Poland, and Karen Spragg, of Caerau Court, Cardiff, yesterday.

Mrs Spragg and Miss Wandelt each deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.

Today's proceedings have come to an end.

The jury has retired and been told the case will resume at 10:00.

As the court proceedings have drawn to a close, we are pausing our coverage.

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

Further messages are relayed to the court, including one where Miss Wandelt asked to take a DNA test.

The jury has also heard a voicemail the defendant left for Madeleine's mother on 13 April 2024.

Lasting for one minute and 50 seconds, the audio goes quiet in parts.

In the message, Miss Wandelt said: "I don't want any money, I just want to talk to you.

"Don't give up on your daughter... call me, please."

The prosecution has detailed more messages, including those about DNA tests.

"Let me prove to you I'm not a liar and a crazy person... I beg you to stop blocking my number... I know things only you, Gerry and Madeleine would know," Miss Wandelt wrote in one of the messages.

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

Mr Duck KC said the contact with Madeleine's sister, Amelie, ended at the start of January 2024, but she was "not deterred" and "adjusted her approach and her target".

The prosecutor told the jury that Kate McCann, Madeleine's mother, had not changed her telephone number since Madeleine's disappearance, adding the contact details "in the wrong hands made her vulnerable".

Mr Duck KC said Miss Wandelt ended up obtaining those details in April 2024 and "continued to pursue her false agenda with Madeleine's parents".

The court heard the defendant contacted Madeleine's mother's phone on 60 occasions but did not receive a response.

One message read: "I never lied, I'm not crazy. Please let me prove it."

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

The prosecution is now going through contact Miss Wandelt had with Madeleine's sister, Amelie.

In one message, Miss Wandelt said: "I know you will not answer me, I'm this girl who went viral saying 'I'm Madeleine McCann'.

"I was rejected with no proofs and no DNA test was done."

Addressing the jury, Mr Duck KC said: "She knew her communications were not welcome and that she was rejected without any proof."

Mr Duck KC said Miss Wandelt continued to contact Madeleine's sister and claim she was her missing sibling.

She claimed she had hypnosis sessions and had "flashbacks" and that she "knows so many things", he added.

The court heard she went on to claim she had memories of the two playing in the garden and that she was her "only hope".

"Please don't block me, I never lied about anything," she said in another message to Madeleine's sister, claiming that the "media made her look crazy".

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

The prosecution has told the court that Miss Wandelt sent emails to Gerry McCann, Madeleine's father, in June 2023.

In one email, she wrote: "I could be your daughter, it's possible I'm her."

She added that people were "trying to cover up the story" and claimed she had the same scars in the same places and shapes as Madeleine, the court heard.

Mr Duck KC said: "Scientific proof means categorically that [the defendant] is not Madeleine McCann."

The McCanns "simply ignored" these claims but Miss Wandelt continued to "engage and provoke a response", he added.

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

Mr Duck KC said Miss Wandelt called the switchboard of the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, claiming to be Madeleine McCann and asked to be put through to Glenfield Hospital.

She added she "remembers nothing before 2010" and had contacted both the UK and Polish police.

The prosecutor said this was the "first attempt to speak to the McCanns" and the information was forwarded to Operation Grange - the team investigating Madeleine's disappearance.

"Far from being deterred, she made further attempts... but that failure, rather than stopping her in her tracks, was a catalyst for a multitude of attempts which culminated in the next two and a half years," he said.

Miss Wandelt followed up by contacting Operation Grange and telling them why she believed she was Madeleine - her reasons included a mark in the iris of her eye.

The court heard the defendant also claimed her birth certificate was "a fake" and that a woman had said she had seen Madeleine in Poland, close to where Miss Wandelt grew up.

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

The prosecutor told the court Miss Wandelt said she had been abducted and transported to Poland.

Mr Duck KC said that, in January 2023, Miss Wandelt was in contact with a Polish charity established to assist with historic missing persons cases and offer support and advice to people seeking those who had gone missing.

According to the prosecutor, Miss Wandelt said she was missing German girl Inga Gehricke, then Acacia Bishop - a baby from Utah in the US - and then Madeleine McCann.

The charity said images "formed the view" that did not support her claim.

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

The prosecutor is continuing the Crown's case and said Miss Wandelt "sought to manipulate" information, including images, "to back up her unsustainable claims".

The court heard she "sought information from experts" and "got answers that she liked".

Why she pursued these "false claims is not a straightforward answer" and something the jury "will not have to answer", he said.

Mr Duck KC added she used features [images], which were freely available, to support her claims that there were similarities between her and Madeleine McCann.

"The evidence will show she obtained numerous images of Madeleine McCann and memories of the McCann family to support her claim," he said.

He added this garnered "wide public interest".

Evidence from this case is of use of images. One powerful example, the court heard, is that Miss Wandelt forwarded images to Madeleine's siblings.

Those images were designed to persuade that there were similarities between them and "were in some way related".

"They had been manipulated and features altered," the prosecutor said.

The three-year-old was on holiday with her family in Portugal when she disappeared on 3 May 2007.

She vanished from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz in the Algarve, sparking a Europe-wide investigation that has become one of the highest-profile missing persons cases.

Madeleine's parents had been dining with friends at a restaurant a short walk away, while their daughter and her younger twin siblings were asleep in the ground-floor apartment.

They had checked in on the children periodically until her mother, Kate, discovered she was missing at about 22:00 local time.

The case remains unsolved.

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

The jury has returned to the courtroom.

Mr Duck KC will continue to open the prosecution's case.

The judge has said the court will sit until 16:15 BST today.

Isaac Ashe
BBC News, at Leicester Crown Court

We are taking a brief recess right now.

As Mr Duck KC told the jury that Miss Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann, the defendant stood in the dock and began to weep.

Mrs Justice Cutts then asked for the jury to be ushered from the courtroom.

At the beginning of his evidence, the prosecutor addressed the jury and said they were going to be here "for some time".

Mr Duck KC said: "Can we, at this very early stage, make this position clear. Julia Wendelt is not Madeleine McCann. This is not an issue you are going to have to decide."

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

Mr Duck KC said the defendants' behaviour was "not typified by an off-hand comment in a post on social media" but a "well-planned campaign of harassment". In Miss Wandelt's case, he added, of two and a half years.

"The McCanns had to endure not just the unimaginable trauma but also the vitriol from some members of the public," he said.

The prosecutor said Madeleine McCann's disappearance "remains close to the top of the media's agenda", which has the capacity to draw "enormous media attention".

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

Michael Duck KC, for the prosecution, is on his feet addressing the jury.

He is explaining the charges brought against Miss Wandelt and Mrs Spragg. Both are charged with stalking causing serious alarm or distress.

Mr Duck KC said the charges related to a time period between 1 June 2022 and 21 February 2025.

The prosecutor told the jury Miss Wandelt "pursued claims she was Madeleine McCann and pursued her parents over a period of a time".

He told the court this happened both by email, telephone, visits to their home village in Leicestershire and by visits to their home address.