Former nurse jailed for stalking after using voice-changing app to pose as male pharmacist and 'catfish' Tinder match
13 September 2024, 21:53 | Updated: 14 September 2024, 00:54
A former nurse has been jailed for 28 months after she used a fake dating app profile to stalk a female date.
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Adele Rennie, 33, was posing as a male pharmacist when she matched with a woman on dating app Tinder in August 2023.
Rennie and her date are said to have exchanged mobile phone numbers before the nurse ordered flowers to her victim's home address under the fake persona, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said.
The incident, believed to be the former nurse's third catfishing scam, saw her cancel the date at the last minute, leading the nurse's date to believe she had been "catfished".
A colloquial term used in situations where a person is purposely mislead in relation to identity, the act of "catfishing" involves a person using fake information in order to create another persona online.
Rennie, from Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, pleaded guilty to four charges at Scotland's Kilmarnock sheriff court in July.
The court heard how the defendant had previously been jailed in 2017 and 2019 for similar stalking crimes involving women.
Rennie's victim then received a voice note from a woman calling herself "Cheryl" a few days after the date was cancelled.
In the recording, the woman claimed to be a friend of the male "pharmacist" who cancelled, explaining that the date should "not to give up on him".
Shortly after, she received calls from the date, telling authorities she believed that "his" voice had been altered or doctored.
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The court then heard how a month after the voice messages, Rennie sent an unwanted explicit image, before backtracking and claiming she had not intended to send it.
She added she was unable to delete it.
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."
Shortly after the images, Rennie sent a screenshot to the pharmacist, containing a Google Maps image of someone outside her home address, alongside a photograph of the victim's street snapped through a car window.
A string of unwanted attention following, with Rennie sending a concert ticket - a gig in London which Rennie was later pictured at, COPFS revealed.
Following the incident, Police Scotland were called, with Rennie's home later searched by the force in November 2023.
Appearing in court on Friday, Rennie 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.
