A new BBC series dives into the shocking story of a Scottish nurse turned cyberstalker
Glasgow: A new true crime documentary is coming out soon. It tells the wild story of a Scottish nurse who became a notorious catfish. She used a voice-changing app to pretend to be a man while stalking her victims.
The BBC Three and BBC Scotland are behind this three-part series called “The Catfish Next Door.” It focuses on Adele Rennie, a 33-year-old former NHS nurse from Kilmarnock. She created multiple fake identities to target local women over ten years.
Rennie’s stalking started online but had serious effects on her victims. In 2017, during her first court trial, Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane called it the most astounding case she had ever seen. And that was just the beginning of a story filled with twists and turns.
On September 13, 2024, Rennie was sentenced to 28 months in prison. She also received a 12-month Supervised Release Order and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.
The series will feature testimonies from her victims, who will share their experiences. They’ll piece together the truth of this complicated story for the first time. The show aims to understand what drives someone to become a cyberstalker and why catfishing is on the rise, even though it’s not a crime in the UK.
Louise Thornton from BBC Scotland said this story is remarkable and will captivate viewers. The scale of the crime and its many twists will make for compelling television.
Craig Hunter, an executive producer, noted that while the case is astonishing, it also reveals a lot about cybercrime and its impact on victims. It shows how quickly this crime has evolved and what it means for society today.
Clare Sillery, head of documentaries, added that the series will explore catfishing and internet crime in a fresh way, focusing on the Scottish community involved.
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