A female prison guard had a six-month long illicit affair with a convicted rapist serving his 13-year sentence at a prison in England — and things got really out of hand.
A female prison guard was saved from a jail sentence despite admitting to a six-month illicit affair with a convicted rapist serving time at a Dorset jail.
Former guard at HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset, Cherrie-Ann Austin-Saddington from Weymouth embarked on her scandalous affair with prisoner Bradley Trengrove in the summer of 2022 – August to be exact – when the convicted rapist slipped her a note hidden within the pages of what appeared to be an innocent copy of Farmers Weekly magazine.
The piece of paper contained Trengrove’s covert mobile phone number within the prison, and after weighing up whether to report the incident, Austin-Saddington, then 26, ultimately chose not to. That decision was the first in a series of bad ones for the ex-warden.
Austin-Saddington and Trengrove eventually started exchanging messages, chatting by phone, and later rendezvousing in the prison’s workshop areas. What ensued was a sordid relationship in which the pair engaged in sexual activity up to 40 times, frequently in prison workshops where they remained unseen, her trial heard.
Trengrove worked as a general handyman in prison, and the duo would seek out secluded locations away from fellow staff and surveillance cameras – spots where they could converse and be intimate – providing them with ample chances to spend time together without risk of detection.
While Austin-Saddington claimed they were intimate “perhaps four or five times in total”, adding it was always with consent, Trengrove put their sexual encounters in the 30-40 times range, reports the Express.
Austin-Saddington was fully aware the man she was having an affair with was a convicted sex offender, telling MailOnline: “I knew he was a sex offender because it was a sex offenders’ prison.”
Trengrove was serving a 13-year sentence for raping a woman and engaging in sexual activity with a child. He had convinced Austin-Saddington that his conviction was based on a lie, alleging he was sentenced due to the misrepresentation of a relationship he had when he was 15.
The female prison officer naively trusted the convict, driven by what she described as a need for emotional connection. She also revealed to MailOnline that she was homeless when her relationship with Trengrove began, stating “things were very difficult”.
The former prison warden felt isolated and unsupported, admitting she “just wasn’t in a very good place or a stable mind at the time and Bradley came along.”
Discussing why she continued the affair, the ex-prison guard shared: “I wanted a stable life. That’s what I wanted. I don’t know why I even entertained the idea of Bradley. I think I was just looking for someone to support me. I wanted that stable life that I wasn’t getting anywhere else.”
At the time of his 13-year sentencing in 2015 Trengrove was described as “exceptionally dangerous”.
Austin-Saddington and Trengrove’s relationship developed rapidly – with the sex offender’s mother, brother and grandmother reaching out to the prison officer and establishing ties.
Meanwhile, Trengrove started declaring his love for the warder within months, sowing ideas about future arrangements, starting a family and creating a life together.
In November 2022, the female prison guard fell pregnant with Trengrove’s child, with the imprisoned rapist vowing his dedication. The pregnancy terminated in miscarriage eight weeks afterwards, which prompted Trengrove to begin scrutinising Austin-Saddington’s phone calls and demanding regular reports, leaving her feeling accountable for his emotional state and welfare.
Speaking to The Guardian, Austin-Saddington shared she’d experienced a difficult past: “I’ve had a lot happen to me in younger life that’s skewed my way of thinking. I’ve been sexually assaulted on quite a few occasions. I feel like I have to give my person everything because I’m not enough.”
The illicit relationship persisted for months, involving covert communication, smuggled telephone conversations and secret encounters – during this period, Trengrove was even relocated to another prison, HMP Channings Wood, following a cell search that uncovered all his exchanges with Austin-Saddington on his mobile.
The discovery had disastrous consequences for the prison guard, a mother-of-three. She promptly resigned from her post at The Verne, marking the end of her career in the Prison Service and increasing her reliance on Trengrove’s family.
Austin-Saddington was eventually arrested in May 2023.
She was caught attempting to smuggle a Calpol syringe into the prison to give to Trengrove. He intended to fill it with his sperm, expecting her to use it to “artificially inseminate” herself in an attempt to conceive his child again.
Visiting Trengrove under a pseudonym, Austin-Saddington’s downfall came when she decided not to wear underwear and hid the empty syringe in her bra during her visit on May 26, 2023.
Arriving at the prison that day, Austin-Saddington told The Guardian that something felt off. Every visitor was being meticulously searched by a senior officer.
When the former prison guard reached the front of the queue, she was immediately escorted to a separate room for questioning where five officers – both police and prison staff – were waiting.
When asked if she had anything on her person, she admitted to the concealed syringe in her bra. Austin-Saddington was then informed that she was being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office.
She told The Guardian: “A lot of people would say I was crazy in love with him. I’d say that he was the only bit of support in my life and I clung on to it.”
Their relationship persisted for another fortnight following her arrest, with Trengrove’s family offering her legal assistance through advice from the criminal’s solicitor.
At one point, the police arrived at her home and revealed the full extent of Trengrove’s crimes – information she had chosen not to investigate or delve into until then.
This marked the end of their relationship, with Austin-Saddington askin Trengrove’s mother to tell him that she no longer wished to have any contact with him.
Shortly after her arrest in 2023, someone reported Austin-Saddington to social services and her twins were taken from her. Speaking to The Guardian in November 2025, the former prison warden shared she has yet to see her now six year old children.
In February 2024, Austin-Saddington’s life was further disrupted in a bizarre medical event when she suffered a seemingly random spinal stroke, leaving her paralysed from the chest down. This occurred nine months after her split from Trengrove and over a year before her case reached court.
In May 2025, the ex-prison guard’s trial concluded with her two-year sentence being suspended by the judge due to her paralysis. “I know I didn’t get prison time, but I am locked inside my body for the rest of my life.”
Two months post-arrest, Austin-Saddington began a new relationship with a tattoo artist named Jonny, who had previously inked the sleeve on her right arm. The couple tied the knot in November 2024 and he now serves as her carer.
Reflecting on the affair, Austin-Saddington admits she was deceived, as Trengrove filled her with hope for a brighter future, to the extent that she once saved his number in her phone as “Husband to Be”.
The whole ordeal has been particularly hard on her eldest daughter who “saw it all, which was really difficult”. Austin-Saddington reveals her daughter struggled at school, making her “feel awful”.
“I felt like I just wanted to get in my bed for the rest of my life and never leave it.”
Austin-Saddington is now taking measures to make amends. She told The Guardian in November last year that she had been collaborating with a domestic abuse organisation and was enthusiastic about becoming a mediator to assist other victims of domestic abuse. “I do feel like I still need to give back.”
