A former prison officer who began a sexual relationship with a convicted rapist has avoided an immediate jail sentence after being left paralysed from the chest down. Cherrie-Ann Austin-Saddington, 29, pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office after she failed to report an inmate's illicit mobile phone number and later embarked on an affair with him at HMP The Verne in Dorset.
The court heard that Austin-Saddington was handed a magazine containing a slip of paper with the phone number of Bradley Trengrove's secret mobile in summer 2022. She chose not to report it, leading to a series of catastrophic decisions that culminated in a sexual relationship. She was arrested in May 2023 after attempting to smuggle a Calpol syringe into the prison, which Trengrove wanted her to use to inseminate herself with his sperm.
In February 2024, nine months after the relationship ended, Austin-Saddington suffered a spinal stroke that left her paralysed from the chest down. This was cited by the judge as the reason for suspending her two-year prison sentence. 'I know I didn't get prison time, but I am locked inside my body for the rest of my life,' she said from her wheelchair at her home in Weymouth.
Her case is one of at least 10 convictions of female prison officers in the past year for similar offences. A Ministry of Justice freedom of information request revealed that 64 prison staff were recommended for dismissal for inappropriate relationships with prisoners between March 2019 and April 2024, though the true number is likely higher. Critics say the phenomenon points to systemic failures in staff recruitment and management within the Prison Service.
Other recent cases include Linda de Sousa Abreu, sentenced to 15 months for having sex with an inmate at HMP Wandsworth, and Morgan Farr Varney, who received 10 months for going into a cupboard with a prisoner at HMP Lindholme. Former governor Kerri Pegg was sentenced to nine years for her relationship with a drug trafficker.
