The jury has now heard about Julia Wandelt's journey from Poland to the McCanns' home village of Rothley in Leicestershire.

An annual vigil was being held for Madeleine on 3 May 2024 to mark the anniversary of her disappearance.

By chance, the court heard, McCanns were away on the day, but Ms Wandelt approached the village priest and Kate McCann's great-aunt.

When asked about her visit, Mrs McCann told the court: "I was totally relieved we weren't there [at the vigil].

"It's quite a hard experience having the gathering anyway. I felt I would have ended up really upset.

"It would have taken away from the reason we were there."

Mrs McCann was asked about when she became aware of Ms Wandelt's contact with her daughter Amelie.

The court heard she found in September 2024 that Ms Wandelt had been contacting her daughter since January of that year.

She said: "It was the final straw for me. I discussed it with the police."

On repeated DNA test requests, Mrs McCann said: "I almost wanted to put it to bed" to tackle Ms Wandelt's "persistence".

At this point in the proceedings, Ms Wandelt began to sob.

The court heard police had excluded the possibility the defendant was Madeleine.

Mr Duck KC then began talking about others who had claimed they might be Madeleine. He asked if Ms Wandelt's claim was different from others due to her persistence.

Mrs McCann replied: "Totally."

A voicemail sent to Kate McCann from Julia Wandelt is played to the court.

In it, Ms Wandelt said: "If I am her, then everything should be OK but if I'm not, which you probably think, then I'll leave you alone.

"I know my accent is Polish because I live here... I'm not pretty like Madeleine but I know what I know and I know and what I remember.

"Please give me a chance, you don't give up on your daughter, I'm not crazy."

The evidence so far over the past two days has heard about repeated messages Ms Wandelt sent to the McCanns over an extended period of time.

When asked about the first initial contact, Mrs McCann said: "I didn't respond. I didn't want to engage."

The court has now to turned to January 2024, when the jury hears Ms Wandelt contacted Amelie, Madeleine's sister, who is now 20.

Mrs McCann said she was not aware of this but found out about it "later on", she told the court.

She added direct communications from the defendant to her started on 13 April 2024.

One message read: "I never lied to you, I'm not crazy, the media made me look crazy."

Another read: "I don't want money - I only want one call."

The court has now heard Ms Wandelt contacted the Find Madeleine, external website, but Mrs McCann told the jury a web admin "protected them a little bit" and details were not relayed.

"I remember being told she tried to join various groups and forums," Mrs McCann said.

She added the first direct contact she had from Ms Wandelt was in the "early part of last year".

She added between 2022 and 2024, officers involved in Operation Grange - the Met's investigation into the disappearance - kept them informed that Ms Wandelt still believed she was Madeleine.

Mrs McCann has now begun to answer questions from prosecutor Michael Duck KC.

She is asked about her phone number - which as we heard on Monday, has not changed since Madeleine went missing in 2007.

Mr Duck KC now turns to Julia Wandelt - Mrs McCann confirms she was first contacted by the defendant "about three years ago".

She also recalls a phone call - when Ms Wandelt called Glenfield Hospital. In evidence earlier this week, we heard Ms Wandelt called the switchboard in order to try and get hold of her husband, Gerry.

Madeleine's mother, Kate McCann, is now in court behind a screen and has just been sworn in to give evidence in the case.

Image source, PA Media

The prosecutor, Michael Duck KC, is back on his feet and has introduced his associate, Nadia Silver, who has begun to go through agreed facts to the jury.

Agreed facts in court are matters or pieces of evidence that both parties accept as true and do not dispute, allowing the court to focus on the truly contentious issues.

Image source, PA Media/BBC

Here's what's been heard in court over the past two days:

• Julia Wandelt - who the court heard has repeatedly claimed she was Madeleine - accosted Kate McCann outside the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, on 7 December last year with a demand for a DNA test
• Karen Spragg was introduced to the jury. The 61-year-old, the court was told, was a "forthright supporter of the conspiracy theory" that Madeleine's parents were responsible for her disappearance. She "began to take an active role in peddling" Ms Wandelt's story, the prosecution said
• The defendants, the court heard, acted "as a team". Eventually, the "net was spread wider", and contact was made with David Payne and his wife, who had been with the McCanns on the night Madeleine disappeared
• The jury was shown messages exchanged by the defendants where they discussed going through the McCanns' bins
• The court heard Ms Wandelt was arrested at Bristol Airport on 19 February this year as she got off a flight. Mrs Spragg was arrested afterwards while waiting for her co-accused in the car park

George Torr
BBC News, East Midlands

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.

Image source, PA Media

Isaac Ashe
BBC News, East Midlands

Julia Wandelt is sitting next to a court security officer on the front row of the dock, Karen Spragg is on the back row.

Alex Smith
BBC News Online

Good morning - we are reporting live from Leicester Crown Court as the trial of Julia Wandelt and Karen Spragg continues.

The pair each deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann - the parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann - between June 2022 and February this year.

The prosecution opened its case against Ms Wandelt, of Jana Kochanowskiego in Lubin, Poland, and Mrs Spragg, of Caerau Court Road, Cardiff, on Monday.