Prison officer who had fling with rapist 'knew he was a sex offender'

A female officer has confessed to seeking a "stable life" with an incarcerated man she knew was a convicted sex offender when she initiated an ill-conceived affair.

Cherri-Ann Austin-Saddington claims she fell in love with Bradley Trengrove, an inmate at HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset serving 13 years for a woman and sexual activity with a child. The two started a fling in August 2022, Poole Magistrates' Court heard, and proceeded to have sex up to 40 times until Trengrove was moved to HMP Channings Wood in Devon less than a year later. During their affair, Saddington - who was also seeking to carry Trengrove's child - knew what Trengrove was convicted for, but was laser-focused on a "stable life".

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Speaking to the Daily Mail, Saddington allegedly said she "knew he was a sex offender because it was a sex offenders' prison", but had met Bradley while struggling as a homeless mum-of-three living out of temporary accommodation.

She said: "When the relationship [with Trengrove] started, I was homeless, there was a lot going on with my family. I was trying to look after my family as well as deal with life as a mum of three kids and working and being put into temporary accommodation with the kids. Things were very difficult. I didn't have anybody to turn to or talk to.

"I just wasn't in a very good place or a stable mind at the time and Bradley came along." In Trengrove, she added, she wanted someone "to support me" and a "stable life that I wasn't getting anywhere else".

Saddington and Trengrove were sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court last week, with Trengrove having pleaded guilty to encouraging/assisting in the commission of an indictable only offence, possession of a digital device whilst inside a prison and transmitting/causing the transmission of an image or sound from a prison.

He will now serve two years and three months on top of his initial 13-year sentence, which will begin once he has served the former, with Saddington handed a suspended sentence.

She pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and conveying a prohibited article in or out of prison. The mum was spared jail after a judge decided to suspend her sentence for two years, as she was left in a wheelchair following a spinal stroke that took place after her crimes came to light.