A guest on This Morning broke down in tears as she revealed how the nurse looking after her hospitalised grandfather launched a catfishing plot against her.
Former beauty queen and dancer Abbie Draper joined show hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley as she revealed how she began receiving messages from what appeared to be her home town of Kilmarnock’s most eligible bachelor.
After doing some digging into the background of the mystery man, who claimed to be a doctor looking for dancers to participate in an NHS fundraiser, Abbie, 34, realised ‘Dr David Graham’ was not who he claimed to be.
Uncovering a trail of deception, the beauty queen soon found out she was being conned by a nurse that was taking care of her grandfather in hospital.
Struggling to hold back her emotions as she recalled finding out the true identity of her catfish, Abbie went on to reveal how sinister stalker Adele Rennie had been behind the plot, who had been collecting explicit pictures from women online.
Catfishing involves a perpetrator creating a fake online identity, often using stolen photos and information, to deceive and manipulate someone else by tricking them into thinking they are speaking with a real person.
Former beauty queen and dancer Abbie Draper broke down in tears as she revealed how the nurse looking after her hospitalised grandfather launched a catfishing plot against her
She joined joined show hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley to open up about being a victim of a catfishing plot
Speaking to Ben, 51, and Cat, 49, Abbie explained of how the catfishing ordeal began: ‘My granddad was in hospital, he had just had a stroke, so I was coming from London back to my hometown.
‘I had a friend request from someone called David Graham, and I thought nothing of at the time, thought good looking guy, and I got a message request.
‘I thought that was a bit strange, but didn’t think much of it. I looked at his profile, he had different things about that would suggest he was working at the hospital, so stethoscopes, things about being a doctor.
‘I said, “Do you work at the hospital?” He said, “I’m your granddad’s doctor” – I was quite naive, I didn’t think about how he wasn’t supposed to approach me.
‘More time went on and he was posting things about NHS charity balls and I was dancing at the time and he wanted performers for this charity ball.
‘Once he had told me about this charity ball, he made this really nice flyer for it and I reshared it, hoping to bring more attention to it, and that’s when people started coming to me like, “Do you know this David Graham?”
‘I said he was my grandad’s doctor, but they were like, “Hmm, I’m not too sure that he is who he says he is”, and from there we developed a group chat to talk about David.’
With the help of other local women, Abbie began to uncover who was behind David’s profile online: nurse Rennie, who has been jailed multiple times for catfishing.
Speaking to Ben, 51, and Cat, 49, Abbie explained of how the catfishing ordeal began
Abbie went on to reveal how sinister stalker Adele Rennie had been behind the plot, who had been collecting explicit pictures from women online
Abbie continued, getting upset and breaking down in tears: ‘Nobody knew who David Graham was. The name Adele Rennie got mentioned in this group chat.
‘I was thinking, why would they do this to me? I’m not from here anymore. I don’t know this person. I looked up her name on Facebook and her picture came up.
‘It was the shock of this woman does work in the hospital that my grandad was in – she was actually one of the people looking after my grandad, I physically saw her next to my grandad.
‘You feel so vulnerable in that moment, and obviously the nature of his condition, like he had had a stroke, he wasn’t able to speak. He wasn’t able to move.
‘The thought of someone manipulating a situation in a certain way, not being who they say they are. Like what kind of things could they do within a hospital setting?’
Abbie then collected all of her evidence and went to the police to bring Rennie down, meeting others on Facebook who had also been catfished by Rennie.
Among them were ‘multiple women’ who had been targeted and ‘not just over the internet’, with Abbie explaining ‘women were being followed’.
Abbie’s plight to bring down the catfish will be followed in new BBC documentary The Beauty Queen and the Catfish, which will be available on iPlayer from Sunday.
Abbie revealed how she began receiving messages from what appeared to be her home town of Kilmarnock’s most eligible bachelor
Adele Rennie used a voice-changing app to sound like a man in her ‘sophisticated’ stalking campaign
In 2017, Rennie was finally charged with stalking and sexual offences, and was imprisoned until 2018 – she went on to re-offend in 2019 and 2023.
Rennie pretended to be a male pharmacist when she matched with her victim on the dating platform Tinder in August 2023.
The former nurse was yesterday locked up for 28 months at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court after she admitted similar charges at a hearing in July 2024.
Rennie, of Kilmarnock, will also be under supervision for 12 months following her release, banned from contacting or approaching her victim for five years and placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years after pleading to guilty to four charges.
The court heard her elaborate stalking campaign involved the use of a voice-changing device to sound like a man as he pretended to be a male pharmacist to pick up her victim on the dating app, Tinder, in August 2023.
The pair exchanged numbers and she later had flowers to delivered to her victim’s address who arranged to go on a date with the “man”.
But when Rennie cancelled the meeting at the last minute, the woman realised the Tinder account was a ‘catfish profile’ created to deceit victims.
However, days later she received a voice note from someone calling herself ‘Cheryl’ claiming to be the man’s friend and urging her ‘not to give up on him’. She then received calls from him but felt the voice had been altered.
Abbie, 34, realised ‘Dr David Graham’ was not who he claimed to be
Abbie got emotional as she spoke about the plot
On September 5, the victim received an unwanted explicit image from Rennie, who stated she did not mean anything by it and was unable to delete it.
A week later the woman was sent a message by Rennie containing a photograph taken outside the complainer’s workplace.
Prosecutors said that the following month, the accused sent her victim a screenshot of Google Maps which showed someone outside her home.
The woman then received a photograph of her street which had been taken through a car window.
Less than a week later the victim was sent a ticket for a gig in London by Rennie but decided she did not want to go. Rennie then asked her to send the ticket on via Ticketmaster to an email address.
The woman was shown pictures from the concert by a witness showing Rennie in attendance there. She then contacted police who searched Rennie’s home on November 14, 2023.
A mobile phone was examined which revealed an email address with the name of the man and searches for the victim in its internet history.
The police also found a photograph matching the fake male profile and recovered several bank cards, which had not been declared in accordance with Rennie’s sex offender notification requirement.
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‘Catfishing’ nurse in jail after pretending to be a man to deceive her victim
Sheriff Nicola Patrick told her: ‘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 pre- meditation, deception and manipulation and it is clear from the victim impact statement they have had a profound effect on the victim so much so that she has had to seek support and assistance to deal with the trauma you caused her.’
She added there was no alternative to custodial sentence and ‘in order to protect the public from serious harm’ on her release, the sheriff imposed a Supervised Release Order.
Following the hearing, David Bernard, Procurator Fiscal for North Strathclyde, said: ‘Adele Rennie carried out a sophisticated stalking campaign despite being subject to strict notification requirements as a registered sex offender.’
‘We recognise that the trauma suffered by victims of stalking can be profound and distressing.
‘We hope this conviction brings some comfort to those affected by Rennie’s concerning and manipulative behaviour.’
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.