Besotted prison officer who had sex up to 40 times with 'exceptionally dangerous' rapist spared jail
14 May 2025, 14:51 | Updated: 14 May 2025, 15:47
A female prison officer who became besotted with an 'exceptionally dangerous' rapist and had sex with him up to 40 times has avoided jail.
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Cherri-Ann Austin-Saddington was working at HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset, when she became infatuated with sex offender Bradley Trengrove, 31.
The pair entered into a six-month relationship, in which the 29-year-old tried to get pregnant and had sex with the convict in prison workshops while nobody was around.
At one point, the female prison warden was carrying Trengove's child, but later lost the baby.
To enable them to communicate when Austin-Saddington wasn't working, the mother-of-three smuggled a mobile phone into the Category C facility for her lover.
She was so in love with Trengove that she saved his name on her mobile as 'husband to be' and even agreed to get pregnant again with him, a court heard.
When Trengrove was moved to HMP Channings Wood in Devon, visited him using a fake name.
To carry out their bizarre pregnancy scheme, she smuggled in an empty Calpol syringe in her bra on one of her visits.
Austin-Saddington, from Weymouth, had planned to 'artificially inseminate' herself with Trengrove's sperm, which he had wrapped in cling film for her.
Despite pleading guilty to charges of misconduct in a public office, Austin-Saddington was handed a suspended sentence because she was wheelchair-bound after suffering a fall following her crimes.
Trengrove, from Cramborne, Cornwall, was given another two years and three months to serve on top of his 13 year extended jail sentence for raping a woman and having sexual activity with a child in 2013 and 2014.
Austin-Saddington started working as a prison officer at The Verne in July 2019, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.
Before Trengove was transferred to the jail, his future lover was given a written warning in 2020 for concerns over her professionalism and interaction with prisoners.
Her behaviour led to her probationary period being extended.
In January 2022, Trengrove was transferred to the jail and began a relationship with Austin-Saddington in around August of the same year, MailOnline reported.
The prison officer sent Trengrove a number of gushing messages during their relationship, which were read out to the court by prosecutor Robert Bryan.
In them, the defendant stated that Trengrove was "the one' and that she would love him "til my last breath".
Mr Bryan said: "He [Trengrove] said they had unprotected sex 30-40 times. She told him in November she was pregnant with his baby. He encouraged her to be less risky but she said that would mean less opportunity to meet.
"She lost the baby at about eight weeks."
In March 2023, Trengrove was moved to HMP Channings Wood, but this did not deter Austin-Sadddington from keeping their affair going.
When she visited him on May 26 under a false name, officers arrested her after finding she had an empty syringe in her bra when carrying out a pat down search.
They also found that she was not wearing any underwear for that visit.
Emily Cook, defending Austin-Saddington, argued that her client should not be jailed due to her ill-health.
Because of an "incredibly devastating physical event", the defendant was "wheelchair-dependent" and had had "her liberty curtailed for many months", Ms Cook told the court.
"You are not sentencing the woman who committed these offences, she's a very different woman now," she said.
Nick Robinson, defending Trengrove, said it was a 'genuine infatuation' and he was not corrupting the prison guard.
"He knew what he was doing, his heart ruled his head," he added.
Austin-Saddington admitted misconduct in a public office and conveying a mobile phone into a prison.
She was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for 18 months with 25 rehabilitation activity days.
Trengrove admitted encouraging or assisting her in the misconduct, having a mobile phone inside prison and using it for 'unauthorised transmission of images or sound'.
After the case, Detective Inspector Alastair Quinn, of the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU), said: "We are committed to working with our region's prisons to root out corruption and will be looking to take similar action against other prisoners who seek to corrupt prison staff.
"Clearly, by entering into a relationship with a prisoner, Austin-Saddington was herself also committing a serious offence and undermining the already challenging work her former colleagues do."
