Female Prison Officer Who Tried To Get Pregnant By ‘Exceptionally Dangerous’ Rapist And Had Sex With Him 40 Times On Duty Avoids Jail
Over the course of six months, the two carried on a secret affair inside the prison, often meeting in workshop areas to have sex while trying to avoid detection.
Austin-Saddington even became pregnant during their relationship, though she later lost the baby.
While the affair was ongoing, she smuggled a mobile phone into the Category C prison so she and Trengrove could keep in contact.
In her own phone, she saved his contact under the name “husband to be’, a court heard. “
Even after Trengrove was transferred to a different prison, she continued visiting him—this time using a false name.
So deep was her obsession that she agreed to go through with an unusual plan to try and get pregnant again.
On one of her visits, she brought in an empty Calpol syringe hidden in her bra so she could “artificially inseminate” using sperm he had placed in cling film and passed to her.
Her sentence was suspended due to a serious injury she suffered after the events in question, which has left her in a wheelchair.
Trengrove, from Camborne in Cornwall, had already been serving a 13-year sentence for rape and sexual activity with a child dating back to 2013 and 2014.
He was given an extra two years and three months on top of his original sentence for his role in the relationship.
She was given a written warning in 2020 over concerns about how she was interacting with inmates and how professional she was.
Her probationary period was also extended due to suspicions she was getting too close to two other prisoners.
In January 2022, Trengrove was transferred to The Verne—where disgraced pop star Gary Glitter had also been held.
By around August that year, he and Austin-Saddington began a romantic and physical relationship.
Trengrove later told police they had sex between 30 and 40 times inside one of the prison workshops.
Prosecutor Robert Bryan read aloud some of Austin-Saddington’s messages to Trengrove, in which she referred to him as “the one”, told him she’d love him “til my last breath”, and described him as her “reason for living”
“I did maintenance work around the prison, there were lots of workshops, we would meet down at the workshops where less people were around.
“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 transferred to HMP Channings Wood in Devon.
While he was there, Austin-Saddington sent him intimate photos. However, prison staff intercepted the images before they reached him.
On May 26, she went to visit him using a false identity. During a routine search, officers noticed she wasn’t wearing any underwear and found the syringe in her bra. She was immediately arrested.
Her lawyer, Emily Cook, argued in court that Austin-Saddington should not be sent to prison due to her serious health condition.
“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.”
“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.”
He explained further: “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.”
“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.
“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.”
“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 pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office, as well as to bringing a mobile phone into the prison facility.
As for Trengrove, he admitted to helping and encouraging her actions.
He also confessed to having a phone in prison and using it for “unauthorised transmission of images or sound.”
“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.”
