A Polish woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann is facing deportation after being found guilty of harassing the missing girl’s family.

Julia Wandelt, 24, from Lubin, south-west Poland, waged an extensive campaign, including making calls, leaving messages and turning up at the home of the family of Madeleine, who disappeared in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007, Leicester crown court heard.

Wandelt put her hands to her face on Friday when jurors returned a guilty verdict for the harassment of Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.

After a five-week trial, the jury decided Wandelt was not guilty of stalking. Her co-defendant, Karen Spragg, from Cardiff, was found not guilty of stalking or harassment.

Mrs Justice Cutts sentenced Wandelt to six months in prison which she has already served.

The court was told a deportation order had been served against Wandelt and that it was a matter for the home secretary whether she remained in custody.

The judge also imposed a restraining order against Wandelt because she posed a “significant risk of the harassment of the McCanns in future”. She said she accepted evidence that Wandelt was abused as a child, but this did not justify her behaviour.

The trial heard Wandelt claimed to have memories, induced by hypnosis sessions, of being abducted and of living with the McCanns as a child. She said this included feeding Madeleine’s younger brother, Sean, and playing ring a ring o’ roses.

Jurors heard that Wandelt tried to persuade “anybody prepared to listen” that she was Madeleine, and that she had been kidnapped from Portugal and abused with other girls in Poland.

Wandelt called and messaged Madeleine’s mother more than 60 times in one day in April last year, claiming to have a memory of Kate McCann stroking her head and saying she would find her before the abduction.

The McCanns were confronted by Wandelt on their driveway last December, when she begged for a DNA test.

Madeleine’s parents gave evidence from behind a curtain to shield them from Wandelt. Gerry McCann said the couple still clung to thhe hope that Madeleine was alive.

He said Wandelt’s actions were hampering the ongoing inquiry into his daughter’s disappearance.

Kate McCann said she had been distressed by Wandelt’s behaviour, particularly a letter sent by the defendant addressing her as “mum”.

Wandelt told jurors she believed Madeleine’s father was involved in her disappearance and that her mother knew of the abduction, but they “had no other choice”.

She also suggested the continuing police investigation into the disappearance, called Operation Grange, which has received more than £13m in funding, involves money laundering.

A forensic expert, Rosalyn Hammond, told jurors: “Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann” because their DNA profiles do not match.

Asked in court whether she still thought she was Madeleine, Wandelt said she was “50/50” and added that she would like to see the full paperwork proving they are different people.

The next day in the witness box, Wandelt said: “I do believe I’m her. I do remember them, but I’m exhausted, I’m completely exhausted with all of this.”

The McCanns said they took no pleasure from the verdict. In a statement they said: “Like most people, we did not want to go through a court process and only wanted the harassment to stop.

“The decision to prosecute was taken by the Crown Prosecution Service, based on the evidence gathered by the police.

“We hope Ms Wandelt will receive the appropriate care and support she needs and any vulnerability will not be exploited by others.”