The McCann Stalkers - “I’m not a nasty person”

The Trial

The Crime Desk

True Crime

4.2 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode we have the words of the two women on trial. Julia Wandelt told police she was the victim and Karen Spragg accused the McCanns of organising the abduction of their daughter Madeleine. She also said she wasn’t a nasty person.

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Presenters: Caroline Cheetham and Claire Duffin

Editor: Chelsea Moore

Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham

Producer: Chelsea Moore

Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini

Voice Actors: Lucy Ryan and Rhys Hanson

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.

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The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.

Click here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter.

It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world.

A Daily Mail production.

Seriously Popular.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the trial UK, the McCann Stalkers.
0:09.2	I'm Caroline Cheatham.
0:10.6	And I'm Claire Duffin.
0:12.3	Today we've got a bit of a sense of the defence case of Julia Vandelt and Karen Sprague
0:17.2	from what they told the police after they were arrested.
0:20.8	In the interviews, Julia Van Delt says that she is the victim and the McCann family don't
0:25.6	care about Madeline.
0:27.1	She said that she believed her own parents had got her from the McCannes and given her a new
0:32.2	identity.
0:33.3	When Karen Sprague was interviewed, she spouted what the prosecution have said is her
0:37.3	conspiracy theory
0:38.4	that Gerry and Kate McCann had arranged the abduction of Madeline.
0:42.1	She said she started to help Julia Van Delt because her motherly instincts kicked in.
0:47.0	And if the McCanns had done the DNA test before, there would have been no stalking.
0:52.3	Welcome to episode seven.
0:56.1	I'm not a nasty person.
1:11.6	That's some more breaking news for you this morning.
1:17.2	We're just hearing that a search is underway from a three-year-old British girl who's gone missing in the Algarve area of Portugal. The disappearance of Madeline McCann in Portugal in 2007, when she was just three years old, sparked huge searches which dominated the headlines for years.
1:27.2	18 years on, she has never been found and
1:29.7	her parents, Kate and Jerry, have campaigned consistently for the search to continue for their
1:35.9	daughter. Tonight, Madeline's parents, Jerry and Kate are still waiting desperately for news.
1:41.6	And with every hour that passes, the questions only grow and the sense of dread mounts.
	...

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