A woman on trial for allegedly stalking the parents of Madeleine McCann sent them a letter signed 'Madeleine x' and claimed to remember being abducted from their holiday apartment in Portugal, a court has heard.
Julia Wandelt, from Poland, is accused of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann over a period of two and a half years by contacting them hundreds of times and accosting them at their home, leaving them upset and worried about their safety.
Leicester Crown Court was played an audio recording of a visit by Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, to the McCanns' house in December last year, in which Kate McCann appeared to plead with the pair to leave, saying: 'You're causing us a lot of distress, now stop it.'
The prosecutor, Michael Duck KC, described a letter posted through the McCanns' door addressed to 'Mum (Kate)' and signed 'Madeleine x' as a 'final, cruel signature'. He also told the jury that Wandelt wrote she wanted to 'hug' Kate and the McCanns' two adult children.
The defendants were arrested at Bristol airport on 19 February, as Wandelt made a follow-up visit to the UK and Spragg waited in the car. Both deny a count of stalking causing serious alarm and distress.
