Ex-nurse jailed again for online fake man scam

A former nurse who posed as a man online to trick women into sending her naked pictures has been jailed just months after being freed from prison for a similar offence.

Adele Rennie, 28, who was sentenced to three years, used a voice-changing app and pretended to be a wealthy lawyer using the Tinder dating site.

In 2017, she was jailed for 22 months after pretending to be male doctors.

She was also put on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard that Rennie had posed as a 31-year-old criminal defence lawyer called "Dan" when she targeted her first victim.

She asked for the woman's mobile number and called her from a withheld number in a voice the victim described as "strange and tinny".

Rennie then alarmed the victim by saying she went to the same places as her including Morrisons supermarket and a gym. They arranged to meet but Rennie cancelled, saying he had "too much baggage".

The victim was then sent a video of Dean Castle country park in Kilmarnock, where she had been, a picture of the brand of tea she liked and "Dan" hinted he knew her postcode. She feared she was being stalked.

Ruaraidh Ferguson, prosecuting, said: "Her fear grew so much that she did not feel safe in her own home and went to stay with family members."

Detectives played the victim an audio clip of Rennie's disguised voice from the her 2017 prosecution and she confirmed it sounded like "Dan".

The court heard that Rennie also duped two other victims.

Mr Ferguson told Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane that Rennie told her third victim he had just been on a case and did not like the judge, Liz McFarlane.

Mr Ferguson added: "You sentenced the accused in 2017, my lady."

Rennie, from Kilmarnock, initially claimed she was a victim of conspiracy between her previous victims but later admitted computer misuse offences causing fear and alarm to her victims in January.

Neil McPherson, defending, said graduate nurse Rennie had worked at Crosshouse Hospital and Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where she was a charge nurse specialising in stroke and general medicine.

He added: "She describes herself as someone who has always suffered from low self-esteem, lack of confidence and felt she has never fitted in."

He said the catalyst to the offending was when Rennie was out running in Dean Castle country park and was recognised by the first victim, an apparent friend of the third victim, who called her a "beast".

Mr McPherson said: "She decided, in her own words, to seek revenge."

Jailing weeping Rennie, Sheriff McFarlane told her: "You have behaved in a cold and calculated way in order to humiliate, hurt and harass other people who have done absolutely nothing to deserve it."