Adele Rennie, a 33-year-old former nurse, has been convicted for a third time for online offenses aimed at targeting women. She pleaded guilty at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court to causing fear and alarm while impersonating a male pharmacist.
Rennie previously served 22 months in prison in 2017 for deceiving women into sending her intimate photos while posing as a man online. Just months after her release in 2019, she was sentenced to three years for pretending to be a wealthy lawyer on the Tinder dating app. She will remain in custody until her sentencing in September.
During a recent court session, it was revealed that Rennie matched with a victim on Tinder, where they exchanged phone numbers. She subsequently contacted the victim using a voice-changing app, making her sound like a man. Rennie sent alarming messages and pictures of her home and workplace, leading the victim to feel as if she was being stalked.
Rennie admitted to sending gifts, obtaining personal information, and conducting internet searches about the victim. She also confessed to sending explicit images.
Concerns about her re-offending prompted Police Scotland to search her home in November, where they discovered a phone linked to the fake profile. This evidence led to her arrest.
Sheriff Nicola Patrick described Rennie’s actions as “alarming.” Her solicitor, Neil McPherson, requested time for background reports, including a psychological evaluation. Detective Inspector Stephen McGrath of Police Scotland stated that the case sends a strong message that such crimes are unacceptable, encouraging anyone with online safety concerns to report them.
Rennie’s criminal history includes her initial guilty plea in 2017 for luring women into romantic relationships through deception. While working as a nurse at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, she targeted women via dating sites and social media, coercing some into sharing intimate photos that she later used as leverage to threaten them.
As a result of her actions, she was placed on the sex offenders register for ten years. Shortly after her first prison term, she was incarcerated again in 2019 for similar offenses, utilizing a voice-changing app to facilitate her deceit .
