The Beauty Queen and the Catfish: BBC documentary reveals how former Miss Scotland fell victim to romance scam - and then caught her catfish

When former Miss Scotland Abbie Draper’s grandad was admitted to hospital, she soon received a social media friend request from one of the doctors who was caring for him, Dr David Graham.

He then asked dancer Abbie if she would perform at an NHS charity ball, which she happily agreed to. But, once she shared details of the ball widely online back in 2014, people approached her and told her he may not be who he seemed. Then, she had her worst fears confirmed when she discovered that Dr David Graham did not exist.

He was actually a persona created by nurse Adele Rennie, who had created a man’s profile in order to contact women. Talking about her catfish experience on ITV’s This Morning earlier today (Thursday January 8), Abbie told Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley that “alarm bells” started ringing for her when she was told that Rennie had carried out the catfish scam before.

She then realised that Rennie, who was then working as a nurse in the hospital, was actually one of the people who had looked after her grandad. “I physically saw her next to my grandad,” she told the hosts. “Because of the nature of my grandad’s condition, he had had a stroke, he wasn’t able to speak, he wasn’t able to to move, so the thought of someone manipulating a situation and not being who they say they are . . . what kind of things could they do within a hospital setting?”

Ben commented that it was “terrifying” and Abbie and Cat agreed that it was. Abbie went on to say that as the situation was so “shocking” it took “some time” for the hospital, which she did not name, to accept that one of their workers was lying in this way.

Abbie went on to explain that she later found out that she was not the only one who had fallen victim to Rennie, and she had also been exploiting other women. She had also soliciting sexually explicit images from her victims.

Rennie was eventually caught and given 22 months in prison in 2017 and placed on the sex offenders register for a decade.

She spent 11 months in jail but offended a second time upon her release and was given a further three-year sentence in 2019. She was then convicted a third time in October 2024, and for a fourth time in Arpril 2025 for similar catfishing offences.

During her interview, Abbie explained how Rennie had used a voice-altering app to disguise her voice and make her sound like a man to maintain her false persona.

At the end of the segment, Ben read a statement recently released by Rennie. She said: “I would like to apologise and take accountability for my offending which has resulted in innocent women being targeted and traumatised.

“During my current time in custody I have accessed services which have allowed me to work through my issues including my offending behaviour. I should have never projected my insecurities on others to cause them harm. I am very sorry for my actions over the years.”

Abbie said she thought the statement was “lovely” but not “genuine”, and added that she couldn’t see past Rennie’s manipulation which had spanned several years.

* The Beauty Queen and the Catfish airs on BBC iPlayer on Sunday (January 11) at 9pm.