A former nurse who used a voice-changing app to sound like a man during a stalking campaign has been jailed for 28 months.
Adele Rennie, 33, posed as a male pharmacist when she matched with a woman on dating app Tinder in August 2023.
The pair exchanged mobile phone numbers, with Rennie later arranging to have flowers delivered to the victim’s home address, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said.
When Rennie pulled out of a date at the last minute, the woman believed the Tinder account was a “catfish”.
It was Rennie’s third catfishing scam.
What is catfishing?
Catfishing refers to the creation of a fictitious online persona, or fake identity, with the intent of deception. It is often used to mislead a victim into an online romantic relationship or to commit financial fraud.
A few days later, the victim received a voice note from a woman calling herself “Cheryl”, claiming to be a friend of the “man” and asking her “not to give up on him”.
She then received calls from the “man”, which she believed sounded like the voice had been altered.
Unwanted explicit image
The following month, Rennie sent an unwanted explicit image and claimed that she did not mean anything by it and was unable to delete it.
The victim then received a message which contained a photograph taken outside of her work.
In October of that year, Rennie sent a screenshot of Google Maps which showed someone outside the woman’s home.
She also sent a photograph of the victim’s street taken through a car window.
Victim is sent concert ticket
In the same month, the woman was sent a ticket for a gig in London by Rennie but did not want to go.
Rennie then asked her victim to send the ticket on via Ticketmaster to an email address.
COPFS said the woman was shown pictures from the concert by a witness, which showed Rennie in attendance.
Police launch investigation
The police were called, and Rennie’s home was searched in November 2023.
A mobile phone was examined which revealed an email address with the name of the “man” and searches for the victim in the internet history.
The police also found a photograph matching the fake male profile and recovered several bank cards that had not been declared in accordance with Rennie’s sex offender notification requirement.
Rennie had previously been jailed in 2017 and 2019 for similar crimes involving women.
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‘Significant degree of manipulation’
Sheriff Nicola Patrick said: “By your own admission you deliberately sought out your victim and embarked on a course of conduct designed to cause her distress.
“Your actions involved a significant degree of premeditation, deception and manipulation and it is clear from the victim impact statement they have had a profound effect on the victim.”
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Rennie, from Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, pleaded guilty to four charges at the town’s sheriff court in July.
She admitted stalking, coercing a person into looking at a sexual image, and two charges of breaching her notification requirements in regards to the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Rennie returned to the dock on Friday and was jailed for 28 months and made subject to a year-long supervised release order.
She was also placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) for five years.
In addition, she was also banned from contacting her victim for five years.
David Bernard, procurator fiscal for north Strathclyde, said: “We hope this conviction brings some comfort to those affected by Rennie’s concerning and manipulative behaviour.”