Prison officer smuggled mobile into jail to arrange sex sessions with rapist
Cherri-Ann Austin-Saddington and convicted rapist Bradley Trengrove had sex up to 40 times while she was working in HMP The Verne where he was serving a 13-year term
A female prisoner officer smuggled a mobile phone into the jail where she worked so she could contact her rapist lover to arrange meet ups for sex.
Cherri-Ann Austin-Saddington had sex in workshops at HMP The Verne on Portland, Dorset when no-one was around after becoming besotted with Bradley Trengrove, who has been described as an "exceptionally dangerous" sex offender. The pair would arrange their trysts in the category C prison on the phone which she had taken in for him as they embarked on a six-month relationship, in which she even got pregnant, despite later losing their unborn baby.
A court heard the mother-of-three saved his name in her mobile under 'husband to be' and when Trengrove, 31, was moved to another prison she visited him using a fake name. She was also so infatuated with the convict that she went along with a bizarre plan to get pregnant by him again.
During a visit the 29 year old smuggled in an empty Calpol syringe in her bra so she could 'artificially inseminate' herself with his sperm he had wrapped in cling film for her. It was found during a search by officers. Robert Bryan, prosecuting, read out some gushing messages the prison officer sent Trengrove stating he was "the one" and that she would love him "til my last breath. She added that he was her "reason for living".
Mr Bryan said: "He said things moved on from being friendly in August-September 2022. He said 'I did maintenance work around the prison, there were lots of workshops, we would meet down at the workshops where less people were around.
"'It got to the point she was coming in for work on days off and we would work together for three or four hours at a time'. He 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."
Trengrove was moved HMP Channings Wood in Devon in March 2023 and then Austin-Sadddington sent him intimate photos while he was there, but they were intercepted by staff. She was arrested when she was caught trying to smuggle the syringe into the prison during a visit.
Austin-Saddington, from Weymouth, pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office. Emily Cook, defending Austin-Saddington, argued that her client shouldn't be jailed due to her ill health. She said: "She had this incredibly devastating physical event that has occurred since her offending. In February 2024, her then partner awoke to find her on the floor. She doesn't know how but something was going on with her spine.
"She is wheelchair-dependent. She has had her liberty curtailed for many months, not by the court but by her ill health. You can see from the messaging, they formed a very intense and infatuated relationship. She takes full responsibility for what she did. She is very ashamed and upset. You are not sentencing the woman who committed these offences, she's a very different woman now."
Nick Robinson, defending Trengrove, said it was a 'genuine infatuation', he was not corrupting her. He said: "Everything was driven towards having conversation with someone he genuinely cared about. Before this he was a good prisoner, working hard towards the earliest possible release. He knew what he was doing, his heart ruled his head."
Judge Jonathan Fuller KC told Austin-Saddington: "The prison service expects the highest standards from their employees. Failure to apply those standards can have an enormous and lasting impact on the prisons, the care of inmates, the integrity which is to be maintained and, of course, public confidence. Your betrayal of that trust represents a serious and prolonged misconduct by someone in public office.
"I am mindful of your current physical state and pending rehabilitation. For that reason only I reduce the sentence in order to suspend it. Had it not been for the accident that befell Miss Austin-Saddington the sentence would have been an immediate sentence of imprisonment."
He added: "The intensity of their feelings towards each other, as shown in the messages, could perhaps be described as mutual obsession with each other. The expressed intention was that they should spend the rest of their lives together.
"This was a relationship of equal halves, both making the wrong decision." Austin-Saddington admitted misconduct in a public office and conveying a mobile phone into a prison.
Austin-Saddington was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for 18 months with 25 rehabilitation activity days. Trengrove, from Cramborne, Cornwall, was already serving a 13 year extended jail sentence for raping a woman and having sexual activity with a child in 2013 and 2014. He was given another two years and three months to serve on top of his original sentence for his part in the sordid affair.
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