It is in the news that a woman has been found guilty for the third time of "catfishing", including posing as a man on dating platforms.
A former nurse who previously posed as a man to target women online has been convicted of similar offences for a third time.
Adele Rennie, 33, pleaded guilty at Kilmarnock Sherriff Court to causing a woman fear and alarm while pretending to be a male pharmacist.
In 2017, she was jailed for 22 months after posing as a man online to trick women into sending her naked pictures.
And just months after her release in 2019, Rennie was sentenced to three years for pretending to be a wealthy lawyer using the Tinder dating site.
They say "We hope this case sends out a clear message that such crimes will not be tolerated" but are very unclear about what crime is being committed. Two things that are conspicuously absent from the descriptions are any physical contact, or even meeting the victims, and any financial transactions or motive.
The only obvious crime that I see in the news article seems to be this, which I think would be a criminal threat but I do not know any details. If it occurred after October 2022 it could also fall under the Online Safety Bill. However this is a small non-prominent bit of the article, about half way down.
The court heard how she lured some women into sending intimate pictures which she used to threaten them if they cut contact.
Other possibilities that I can see are:
She also admitted to sending the same woman a picture of male genitalia.
Sending a picture of genitalia can be a serious offence if non-consentual cyberflashing, but in the context of a dating site where the adult victim also sent naked pictures it is not clear that this is describing that crime.
She sent the woman pictures of her home and workplace, which alarmed the victim and made her feel like she was being followed.
The mention of "pictures of her home and workplace", which sounds disturbing but could be just "I googled where you said you lived/worked, it looks nice". Obviously different circumstances could lead to various different offences.
If motivation is relevant, Wikipedia makes the uncited assertion that "Perpetrators ... generally use fake photos and lie about their personal lives to present themselves as more attractive for financial gain, personal satisfaction, evasion of legal consequences, or to troll."
Do we know what actual crimes this person has been convinced of?
