An individual from Poland who claimed to be Madeleine McCann "maintained that false narrative" and stalked the missing girl's parents by sending emails, placing telephone calls and turning up at their residence, a trial was told.
The first defendant and the second defendant carried out a "campaign of harassment", Leicester Crown Court heard, and in Ms Wandelt's case, that occurred over thirty months.
At the trial's commencement, jurors were told the defendant repeatedly claimed she was the missing child and was abducted and transported to Poland.
Ms Spragg and Ms Wandelt each contest a charge of harassment resulting in significant distress and distress to Madeleine's parents between mid-2022 and February this year.
Madeleine's disappearance in the year 2007 - at the three years old during a vacation in Portugal - is among the most extensively covered missing child cases and continues unresolved.
Legal counsel also mentioned the international focus that Madeleine's case had directed toward the parents.
"Among numerous devastating outcomes for the McCann family has been their ongoing struggle to avoid the spotlight of media attention that accompanied that incident.
"The focus they have received has not always been sympathetic, sometimes far from it.
"There continues to exist a group of individuals who persist in refusing to recognize their situation and perpetuate unfounded claims.
"Regrettably, these two defendants belong to that latter group."
Increasing Actions
Testimony revealed from June 2022, the defendant had begun to speak to "anyone who would care to listen" that she was Madeleine.
Legal authorities said that, in January 2023, the accused was in communication with a Polish charity created to help with historic missing persons cases and offer support and guidance to people looking for individuals who had disappeared.
According to the prosecutor, Ms Wandelt first claimed she was the disappeared child Inga Gehricke.
But after these assertions were dismissed by the organization, Ms Wendalt then contacted the charity with a belief she could be another missing child - a missing baby from the American state in the US - before contacting them about her insistence she was the British missing child.
'Did Not Deter'
Her belief progressed to an attempt to call the hospital where the parents worked.
A lengthy telephone conversation to the reception led to a report back from the health service representative to the investigation team, the British investigation into the vanishing.
Court proceedings revealed the defendant made further attempts to reach out to officials and then Mr McCann directly via email in June 2023.
In a message, she wrote: "It's possible I am your child, there's a chance I'm her."
She continued people were "attempting to conceal the case" and claimed there were similarities between her and Madeleine, including having marks in the same places.
But her attempts went unanswered, which court officials said "failed to discourage" the defendant - who then made contact with Madeleine's younger sister the sibling via social media.
Telling her she was her "only hope", she transmitted doctored images to show they were "somehow related" and claimed to have memories of events prior to disappearance, the trial was told.
These assertions, the proceedings revealed, were repeated in 2024 when the defendant is accused of "consistently" messaged the mother's mobile over the span of 24 hours - referring to her as "mother", claiming to recall feeding Madeleine's younger brother Sean, of engaging in children's games in the rear yard of the residence in Rothley, Leicestershire, and of the night Madeleine was abducted.
In one message, she stated: "I remember you visited my room before the incident, touched my hair and said 'I care for you and I will find you'."
Court proceedings of the first defendant, of an address in the Polish city, the country, and Ms Spragg, of Caerau Court Road in Cardiff, proceeds.
