Shadows of Suspicion: McCann ‘Tapas Seven’ Friends Haunted by Stalker’s Chilling Pleas

In the hushed gravity of Leicester Crown Court, the ghosts of a Portuguese holiday resort 18 years past stirred once more. David and Fiona Payne, steadfast pillars of the “Tapas Seven”—the tight-knit group of friends who dined with Kate and Gerry McCann on the fateful night their daughter Madeleine vanished—took the witness stand Wednesday, their voices laced with a mix of resolve and raw unease. They recounted a barrage of “disturbing” messages from Julia Wandelt, the 24-year-old Polish woman accused of stalking the McCanns, who bizarrely claimed to be the missing girl herself. “It left us feeling violated, manipulated,” Fiona Payne told jurors, her eyes steady but shadowed. “This wasn’t just curiosity; it was an intrusion into our deepest scars.”

The trial, now in its second week, centers on Wandelt and her co-defendant, Karen Spragg, 61, from Caerau, Cardiff. Both women deny charges of stalking Kate and Gerry McCann, causing serious alarm and distress between June 2022 and February 2025. Prosecutor Michael Duck KC painted Wandelt as a relentless myth-maker, peddling her identity as Madeleine across social media and personal pleas, undeterred by “unequivocal scientific evidence” from a police DNA test proving no relation. Spragg, described as Wandelt’s enabler, allegedly fueled the fire with conspiracy-laden voicemails and doorstep confrontations. The case, unfolding before a jury of five men and seven women under Mrs Justice Cutts, has gripped the nation, reopening the wound of Madeleine’s unsolved abduction on May 3, 2007, from a Praia da Luz apartment.

For the Paynes, the ordeal began last October, when Wandelt’s digital tendrils snaked into their lives. The couple, who vacationed with the McCanns in the Algarve—rotating checks on the children while sharing tapas at the Ocean Club—described a 25-year bond forged in joy and tragedy. “We’re family, really,” David Payne said softly, recalling barbecues in Rothley, Leicestershire, and the media storm that followed Madeleine’s disappearance. That night, as the group dined 55 meters from the McCanns’ unlocked apartment, Kate’s scream shattered the evening: “Maddie’s gone!” The Tapas Seven—Matthew Oldfield, Rachael Oldfield, Russell O’Brien, Jane Tanner, and the Paynes—became instant suspects in tabloid fever dreams, enduring police scrutiny and public vitriol before being cleared.

Wandelt, from Lubin in southwest Poland, exploited this history with surgical cruelty, jurors heard. In WhatsApp messages and voicemails, she dangled absolution: a DNA test with the McCanns could “clear your names” from lingering suspicions, she wrote to David Payne. “I know what happened that night,” she alleged in one chilling text, claiming suppressed memories of the resort. Another message delved darker: “I was given so many medications as a child… I was poisoned in a murder bid,” Wandelt texted, implying a cover-up implicating the group. She demanded blood group details—”O positive, like mine?”—and forwarded “evidence” of facial matches between her photos and toddler Madeleine’s.

Recordings of two calls, played in court, captured the unease. On October 8, 2024, Wandelt’s voice trembled: “Please connect me with Kate and Gerry. Operation Grange threatened me—I never lied.” The next day: “All doors are closed. I truly believe I might be Madeleine.” Payne, a consultant anesthetist, interjected firmly: “I don’t know who you are.” Fiona Payne, a GP, testified to the fury when Wandelt friended their adult daughter on social media, sending pleas laced with “fake memories.” “I was angry—furious, actually,” she said. “Our daughter has the good sense to ignore it, but it’s manipulative, preying on vulnerability.”

The Paynes aren’t isolated targets. Earlier testimony from Kate McCann, visibly tearful, detailed 60 contacts in a single day—voicemails pleading, “What if I’m Madeleine? Don’t give up on your daughter,” and fabricated flashbacks of “Mommy putting a pink shoe on my foot.” Gerry McCann, a cardiologist, confronted Wandelt directly: “You are not Madeleine.” The twins, Amelie and Sean, now 20, described “upsetting and disrespectful” messages to Amelie—”It’s disturbing she invents memories she’s not part of,” Amelie said via video link. Even Rothley’s vicar and Kate’s aunt fielded approaches at a May 2024 vigil, Wandelt crashing the event post-flight from Poland, met by Spragg.

Spragg’s role emerged as complicit fervor. In a December 2024 voicemail, she begged Kate: “I’m pleading for Julia’s sake—do a DNA, and she’ll go away if not Madeleine. Maybe this is a cover-up.” The duo allegedly ambushed the McCanns’ home twice: May 2, 2024, lurking outside; December 7, thrusting a letter at Gerry. Arrested at Bristol Airport in February—Wandelt en route to Leicestershire—police swabbed her DNA against policy, per Det Ch Insp Mark Cranwell of Operation Grange. “Conclusively proved: no match,” he affirmed, noting 12 false claimants since 2007, but Wandelt’s persistence unique.

Wandelt’s backstory, gleaned from prosecution sketches, hints at delusion’s roots. A 2023 Instagram post—”I am Madeleine McCann”—went viral, drawing supporters and skeptics. She’d claimed to be other missing children before, undergoing hypnosis for “flashbacks” of spoon-feeding Sean or ring-a-roses in Rothley. Duck urged: “She pursued this myth relentlessly, causing real harm.” Defense previews suggest mental health pleas, but Wandelt, composed in the dock, insists her quest was genuine.

As the Paynes stepped down, Fiona’s parting words lingered: “We’ve endured conspiracies before, but this? It dredges up the unimaginable.” The trial, expected to last two weeks, probes not just stalking but the enduring ache of Madeleine’s void—her image forever three, frozen in yellow pajamas. Operation Grange plods on, eyeing German suspect Christian Brueckner, but here, in Court 2, the focus is closure for a family stalked by hope’s cruel echo. For the Tapas Seven, it’s a reminder: some nights at the table change everything, and shadows never fully lift