‘Catfishing’ nurse in jail after pretending to be a man to deceive her victim

A woman who used a voice-changing app to sound like a man during a “sophisticated” stalking campaign has been sentenced to more than two years in prison.

Adele Rennie posed as a male pharmacist when she matched with her victim on the dating platform Tinder in August 2023.

It is the third conviction for the same crime for the 33-year-old woman, after she was convicted in 2017 and again two years later for posing as a man to deceive women.

The former nurse was jailed for 28 months at Kilmarnock Crown Court yesterday after admitting similar charges at a hearing in July.

Rennie, from Kilmarnock, will also be under supervision for 12 months after her release, banned from contacting or approaching her victim for five years and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years after pleading guilty to four charges.

The court heard her extensive campaign of stalking included using a voice-altering device and posing as a male pharmacist to pick up her victim on the dating app Tinder in August 2023.

The couple exchanged numbers and she later had flowers delivered to the address of her victim, who was on a date with the ‘man’.

But when Rennie cancelled the appointment at the last minute, the woman realised the Tinder account was a ‘catfish profile’ created to mislead victims.

However, a few days later she received a voicemail message from someone calling herself “Cheryl,” claiming to be the man’s girlfriend and urging her “not to give up on him.”

After that she continued to receive calls from him, but she felt like his voice had changed.

On September 5, the victim received an unwanted, explicit image of Rennie. She stated that she did not mean anything by it and that she could not remove the image.

A week later, Rennie’s wife received a message containing a photo taken outside the complainant’s workplace.

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the suspect sent her victim a screenshot of Google Maps the following month, which showed someone in front of her house.

The woman was then sent a photo of her street, taken from a car window.

Less than a week later, the victim was given a ticket to a London gig by Rennie, but decided she didn’t want to go. Rennie then asked her to forward the ticket to an email address via Ticketmaster.

The woman was shown photos of the concert by a witness that featured Rennie. She then contacted police, who searched Rennie’s home on November 14, 2023.

A mobile phone was examined, which contained an email address with the man’s name and searched the victim’s internet history.

Police also found a photo that matched the fake male profile and seized several bank cards that had not been declared in accordance with Rennie’s sex offender reporting requirements.

Sheriff Nicola Patrick told her: ‘You yourself have admitted that you deliberately sought out your victim and that you behaved in a way that caused her harm.

‘Your actions involved a significant degree of premeditation, deceit and manipulation. It is clear from the victim impact statement that your actions have had a profound impact on the victim. So much so that she has had to seek support and help to deal with the trauma you have caused her.’

She added that there was no alternative to a prison sentence and “to protect the public from serious harm” upon her release, the sheriff imposed a supervised release order.

After the hearing, David Bernard, prosecutor for North Strathclyde, said: ‘Adele Rennie carried out a sophisticated campaign of stalking despite being subject to strict reporting requirements as a registered sex offender.’

We recognize that the trauma experienced by victims of stalking can be profound and painful.

‘We hope this sentencing provides some comfort to those affected by Rennie’s worrying and manipulative behaviour.’

In the past, Rennie has targeted former Miss Scotland finalist Abbie Draper, whom she met while caring for the contestant’s dying grandfather at Crosshouse Hospital.

She began bombarding her with messages and prank calls, using an app that allowed her to change her voice, pretending to be a doctor.

But Mrs. Draper began to suspect that a doctor she did not know was contacting her out of the blue.

She managed to link the fake Facebook account to Rennie’s phone number, exposing the scam. Ms Draper was not stalked or sent any images. But she said other victims contacted her after she shared her story.

Speaking to the BBC after the hearing in July, she said: ‘This is not just catfishing, it is much more than that.

‘It shows once again that the police and the legal system are now taking it seriously, that you now get a prison sentence, whether you are a woman or a man.’