A determined group of women, deceived by one of the UK’s infamous catfish scammers, banded together as amateur detectives under the name ‘007’ to bring her to justice.

Each of them had been charmed on social media by someone posing as ‘Dr. David Graham,’ who wove them into a web of elaborate lies, with some even admitting to having developed romantic feelings for the fictitious persona.

The so-called doctor, who appeared dashing and charismatic, inundated the women with messages and later phone calls using a voice-altering app. He captivated them further by sending lavish bouquets and presents, drawing them ever deeper into his concocted narrative.

However, when ‘Dr. Graham’ repeatedly dodged requests for face-to-face meetings, suspicions arose. The women took matters into their own hands and delved into an investigation, eventually revealing the impersonator to be Adele Rennie, a woman.

Now, six of Rennie’s victims, who were ensnared over a span of 15 years, have shared their experiences about the catfishing scheme that has repeatedly landed Rennie behind bars.

Abbie Draper, a former Miss Scotland finalist now aged 35, revealed in a BBC documentary set to air on Sunday that Rennie might have targeted as many as 100 women online. Yet, the motive behind Rennie’s actions remains a mystery to her victims.

In an exclusive clip shared with the Daily Mail today, Ms Draper talks about how she tries to work out the true identity of Dr Graham – which turned out to be Rennie.

The mother-of-two, from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, told how her investigation was ‘pretty much a race against time’ and she ‘just had to screenshot everything, write things down, the more evidence the better’.

Ms Draper adds: ‘When I started looking deeper into David Graham’s Facebook, then I started noticing it was all the same people commenting on his things. Then I started asking myself, well, are they real?

Abbie Draper, pictured in the new BBC documentary, was one of Adele Rennie’s victims 

Adele Rennie, pictured, is a notorious ‘catfish’ who has been jailed multiple times for her cons

Adele Rennie was jailed for 22 months in 2017 and again two years later for similar offending

‘We would reverse image search so you can put an image into Google and find out where it’s come through. We found these profiles had actually been stolen from Instagram.

‘There was a web of people – so you’ve got David here, and then you’ve got all these profiles validating that David is a real person. We screenshotted the other profiles as well.

‘Time went so fast, and I didn’t sleep. I was sitting on my phone looking for things and my laptop. Before I knew it we were onto like 5, 6 in the morning – and then I’d have a quick sleep and then I’ll wake back up again. I was consumed by it all.’

Rennie was first jailed for 22 months in December 2017 for cyber stalking and again two years later for similar offending. 

She was given 28 months behind bars in 2024 and could be released later this year. 

Ms Draper was one of the women to take part in the three-part documentary which looked at Rennie’s offending.

She told the programme she was first contacted by ‘good looking’ Dr Graham in 2014 after her grandfather landed in Crosshouse hospital with a stroke.

The seemingly successful medic claimed to be her grandfather’s doctor, but she eventually smelled a rat and found other women who had also been befriended by the man.

They formed an online group called 007 and discovered he was actually Rennie – the nurse who had been looking after Ms Draper’s grandfather in hospital.

She called it ‘sickening’ and told the documentary: ‘It’s a very vulnerable ward. If you really wanted to take an advantage of people that would be the ward to be in’.

After a bit more online probing and telling the hospital about Rennie, it became a ‘race against time’ to collect evidence before the devious nurse blocked her victims or deleted her fake online profile.

Former Miss Scotland finalist Abbie Draper, from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, in the new programme

Mother-of-two Ms Draper was one of the women to take part in the three-part documentary

By using a reverse image search, the women discovered his profile had ‘fake friends’ created to validate his existence.

Ms Draper said: ‘We realised this was a full-scale operation. I knew we just had to get the police involved.

‘It was obvious it was Adele Rennie. I was really optimistic, I’d just go to the police. I thought it was going to be straight forward and they’re just going to arrest her.

‘I was at the police station for about four or five hours.’

After furnishing officers with as much detail as she could, Ms Draper said they just ‘couldn’t get their heads around it’ adding: ‘Their words to me were that she’s not actually done anything.’

Other victims, including Samantha, Lilly, Chloe, Kirsty and ‘Charlotte’ who did not want to be identified, also recounted their stories for the TV crew explaining how devious Rennie managed to dupe them into believing he really was the social media hunk he pretended to be.

Cyber security expert Rory Innes told the documentary: ‘When I first heard of the Adele Rennie case, I think the most surprising element is how long it went on for.’

He pointed out catfishing wasn’t a criminal term and pointed out: ‘It’s almost impossible that the police take that on because what is the crime?

A man called Craig Dunn found Rennie had taken images from his social media to snare women

Abbie Draper speaks to Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on ITV’s This Morning yesterday

‘The moment you say they’ve stolen £1,000 there’s a real clear pathway, it’s fraud. We can investigate that, we can follow the money.’

Mr Innes added that as victims are forced to investigate their own cases the risks for them get ‘higher and higher’ and later asked: ‘If your perpetrator doesn’t go to prison then how safe do you feel?’

Ms Draper acknowledged she felt Rennie’s behaviour had escalated with each new scam and felt a little paranoid following her experience especially since her online stalker kept cropping up again under different disguises.

The documentary also heard from a psychologist about Rennie’s potential motives for the offending with a glimpse into her childhood with an alcoholic father who took his own life.

Her sister Nicole told of her disbelief of the charges levelled at her ‘happy big sister’ while her mother, Christine, said: ‘It’s just such a horrible feeling.

‘You can’t just believe that your daughter has gone to one of them vans and taken off to a prison. She’s in sex offenders register. It’s so complex it’s very hard to make any sense of it.’

She added: ‘I was mortified. Ashamed. I went through every emotion.’

However, she told the documentary she believes Rennie’s latest stint in prison – due to end in March – has changed her.

Rennie even released a statement from behind the bars to apologise to her victims, vowing she has received help.

All three episodes of The Beauty Queen and the Catfish will air on the BBC Scotland channel on Sunday from 9pm. The series will also be available on BBC iPlayer from Sunday, and air on BBC Three on Monday from 9pm and on BBC One from 11.40pm