Woman who used male aliases in cyber stalking campaign is jailed
A woman who used male aliases to pursue online relationships with ten women has been jailed for 22 months for cyber stalking.
Adele Rennie admitted using a host of invented aliases to carry out a series of stalking and sexual offences, a breach of the data protection act and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The former nurse used the names David Graham, David Crolla and Davie, Marco and Matthew Mancini to pursue online relationships with ten women through various social media sites, dating websites and apps over a four year period, the Crown Office said.
She often reused the same storyline and characters, referencing the same names and using the same photos in each interaction and in some instances she would call and speak to her victims using a voice changing app.
Rennie would arrange to meet her victims and then cancel at the last moment, often with the excuse that close family were very ill.
She pleaded guilty to 18 charges when she appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on November 13 and was sentenced there on Monday.
The 27-year-old was sentenced to 22 months in prison and was made the subject of a non-harassment order and placed on the sex offenders register, the Crown Office said.
Prosecutors said the court was told how some victims received flowers from her invented characters which were hand delivered by Rennie.
She accessed the medical records of one of her victims in an attempt to obtain further details.
Rennie admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice by concealing a mobile phone in a bathroom during a police search of her home.
She also admitted attempting to delete an Instagram account, sending a victim a fake identification card she had made in a bid to prove one of her aliases was a real person and disposing of a mobile phone in a bin.
While on bail, she accessed a number of dating and social media sites and contacted one of her victims.
Laura Mundell, procurator fiscal for North Strathclyde, said: ''I welcome the conviction and sentence of Adele Rennie.
Her campaign of stalking and harassment and the invasion of the personal lives of her victim's was wholly unacceptable and caused significant anxiety and alarm.
Stalking can have a devastating and lasting impact on the lives of victims and we will continue to prosecute stalking offences effectively and appropriately, and use the full powers of the legislation available to us.
We would encourage anybody who is the subject of this type of behaviour to have no hesitation in reporting what is happening to the police and to be reassured that police and prosecutors take such offences extremely seriously.''