Two women who fell victim to one of Scotland's most notorious catfish scammers have recalled the moment when they learned their love interest was not the handsome male doctor they believed they were talking to, but a woman.

Along with multiple others, former Miss Scotland finalist Abbie Draper, 35, and Samantha, whose name has been changed at her request, had received a Facebook friend request from someone claiming to be 'Dr David Graham' in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Living in the small town of Kilmarnock at the time, Abbie accepted the request from the attractive doctor, who claimed he had been caring for her ill grandfather at the time.

A year later, retail worker Samantha from Glasgow received the request at random, but was instantly attracted to David and enjoyed his initial compliments about her 'lovely smile'.

The medic built a relationship with the women via messages and later phone calls using a voice-changing app, sending Samantha bouquets of flowers and gifts, drawing them deeper into his world.

But after he came up with a variety of excuses to avoid meeting them in person, they became suspicious and turned into real-life sleuths to uncover his secrets – and unmasked him as a female nurse named Adele Rennie.

Now, in a BBC documentary, The Beauty Queen and the Catfish, the two women have revealed how they discovered the catfisher was Rennie in 2015, who has since been jailed multiple times.

Suspicion first arose for keen dancer Abby after the catfish asked her to perform at a charity ball for medics. At first, she gladly accepted the offer, but after posting about the event online, she received a message from a person she had never met before, warning her not to trust 'Dr David'.

Acting on the message, she rang the venue and asked after the medic, the event, or any other details they might have - but they had no booking under his name at any date or time.

The mother-of-two investigated further, before setting up a group chat called 007 with other women who had communicated with the catfish via Facebook.

Ms Draper said: 'When I started looking deeper into David Graham's Facebook, I started noticing it was all the same people commenting on his things. Then I started asking myself, "Are they real?"

'We would reverse image search so you can put an image into Google and find out where it came 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 on like five, six 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.'

Abby's online sleuthing led her to realise Rennie was behind the scam, an additionally difficult discovery given she was a nurse looking after her late grandfather, who was in hospital at the time.

Recalling the moment, she said: 'I was in such disbelief', adding, 'I've seen her side-by-side with my granddad, it's actually quite sickening. That was someone we put our trust in, it's terrifying to be honest. Who does that?'

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.

Meanwhile, Samantha learned that Rennie had catfished her after she tracked down the hospital that David had claimed to work at via a photograph the scammer sent her earlier of a parking ticket.

Arriving at the hospital with her mother and sister, Samantha waited there until David rang her saying that he had arrived at work, but when she saw the car from the previous photograph arrive, a woman stepped out.

'It's a woman,' she said, in the BBC documentary, adding, 'All three of us were in shock, we were like "no way".'

But it wasn't just any woman; it was one she had spoken to several times, a person claiming to be a florist, who had visited her to deliver flowers from David.

'I was like hold on a minute, it's the florist, it's the girl I've been talking to who has been delivering these flowers. It sent shivers through me.'

Other victims, including 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.

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.

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?

'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?'

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 are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.