Scandals in British prisons: dozens of female guards convicted over sexual relationships with inmates
As guard Cherri-Ann Austin-Saddington was given a suspended sentence after ’artificially inseminating’ herself with her prison lover’s sperm, the Mirror takes a look at other shocking staff-prisoner flings
They’re supposed to be locking up, not hooking up. But a wave of female prison officers have landed themselves in hot water after getting too close to the inmates they’re meant to keep in line.
The latest is Cherri-Ann Austin-Saddington, 29, who, as a prison officer at HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset, fell for “extremely dangerous” inmate, sex offender Bradley Trengrove, 31. The pair had sex on as many as 40 occasions while she was on duty, and she became pregnant with Trengrove’s baby, but suffered a miscarriage.
The infatuated officer, who had the lag’s name on her phone as ‘husband to be’, then tried to get pregnant again by ‘artificially inseminating’ himself with his sperm in a Calpol syringe. Mum-of-three Austin-Saddington narrowly missed seeing the inside of a jail cell herself after she was handed a suspended sentence for misconduct in a public office last week.
Bradley Trengrove(Image: Avon and Somerset Constabulary/BNPS)
But by no means is she the only prison officer caught in a steamy fling with an inmate. According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), 19 members of prison staff were charged with misconduct in public office between 2023 and 2024 - the highest number of lock-up liaisons in the past 10 years. Here we look at some of the others…
Kerri Pegg
On Friday, a prison governor was jailed for nine years for having a relationship with a drug-dealing gang boss at HMP Kirkham in Lancashire. Kerri Pegg, 42, was seen as a "rising star" of the Prison Service, climbing the career ladder from graduate to governor in six years.
But her trial heard she "didn’t play by the rules" and began a relationship with major Liverpool crime figure Anthony Saunderson, helping him secure day release. Sentencing her at Preston Crown Court, Judge Graham Knowles KC told her: "You betrayed the public trust in you and you betrayed the Prison Service."
Tracy Boateng
Last week, prison officer Tracy Boateng, 27, avoided jail after having a fling with a drug-dealing inmate who thought she was his "fairytale ending". The 27-year-old was arrested after colleagues found footage on her body-worn camera of her posing for a selfie with heroin dealer Vincent Ojo while telling him to say "cheese" as she held up two fingers while Ojo stuck his tongue out.
Other clips caught Boateng, an officer at HMP Pentonville, using sexualised language with the prisoner and hugging and kissing him in a jail office. The footage also suggested that Boateng had given Ojo confidential information from his files.
In one clip he could be heard saying: "Let me see what it says in relation to my…" Ojo had been in the jail since 2020 after being recalled to prison for breaking his licence conditions in relation to a 2016 sentence for possession of heroin with intent to supply.
The mother of a three-month-old daughter from Dagenham, Essex, appeared in Snaresbrook Crown Court on Monday to be sentenced for a single count of misconduct in a public office. Judge Caroline English said that it was only the fact Boateng was the sole carer for such a young child that had saved her from prison.
Judge English said: "I cannot emphasise enough just how serious this offence is. As a senior prison officer you held a position of authority and trust and were expected to discharge the duties by upholding prison rules. You knowingly breached those conditions with a prisoner who was under your supervision."
Katie Evans
Officer Katie Evans, 26, was sentenced to 21 months behind bars in March by a judge who told her she had been "manipulated by an experienced criminal". She had been "corrupted" by prisoner Daniel Brownley, who was jailed for attempted robbery, shortly after she started working at HMP Doncaster when she was 21, the court heard.
Evans had more than 140 phone calls with Brownley, moved money around bank accounts for him, and supplied him with information the prison held on him, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said. When talking to Brownley she referred to herself as ’your queen’ and boasted to an ex-prison officer that she had performed oral sex on him.
Moss, defending, said Evans was "immature and vulnerable" at the time and is "absolutely ashamed of her behaviour". The judge said the sentence should have been longer, but "purely as an act of mercy", he reduced it to take into account the effect it will have on her young daughter and the difficulties she will face as a former officer.
Officer Katie Evans has been jailed after having an intimate relationship with Daniel Brownley(Image: PA)
Toni Cole was sent behind bars after having a fling with an inmate at HMP Five Wells(Image: Northamptonshire Police / SWNS)
Toni Cole
In February officer Toni Cole was sentenced to 12 months behind bars after swapping more than 4,000 risqué messages with an inmate she had been entrusted to guard. In January 2023, the 29-year-old female guard engaged in a series of intimate trysts with a convict while working at Northamptonshire’s new ’super-prison’ HMP Five Wells.
Over the course of the illicit romance, Cole sent some 4,369 messages to the con and partook in 18 video calls while participating in "contact which was sexualised or flirtatious". Flouting prison rules, Cole would sit on the knee of her lag lover and kiss him. The game was finally up when bosses got wind of what was really going on.
Hayley Jones
In August 2024, prison teacher Hayley Jones, 33, pleaded guilty to having an "inappropriate relationship" with convicted killer Jordan McSweeney at HMP Belmarsh. Judge David Miller said: "Some of the evidence was that he was getting special favours or treatment. He may have been bragging to another prisoner about the power that he had over this person."
But despite the workshop instructor admitting to misconduct, charges were later dropped against McSweeney as there was "insufficient evidence" to prove the twisted killer was guilty of further criminality. McSweeney is currently serving a minimum term of 33 years for the heinous murder and sexual assault of Zara Aleena, a 35-year-old law graduate, in June 2022.
Linda De Sousa Abreu
In January HMP Wandsworth officer Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, was jailed for 15 months after a video was widely shared on social media showing her having sex with an inmate in a cell. The shocking clip, which went viral, captured the woman, clad in uniform, having sex while a cellmate filmed it on a mobile phone.
In a prepared statement, De Sousa Abreu claimed she was "terrified for her own safety" prior to the offences. She said: "I thought if I didn’t go along with it, they would have both raped me and there was no guard on the landing."
The video went viral showing the female officer having sex with an inmate with her uniform on(Image: X)
The officer, who previously described herself as a swinger, had a number of videos on adult platform OnlyFans, where she described herself as a "happily married sexy Latina" under a pseudonym. At sentencing, Judge Martin Edmunds KC said: "From what I know about you, you were certainly not naïve about the media or social media."
He continued: "It must have been obvious that the recording would be shown around and shared, at least amongst prisoners at Wandsworth where it would do the most harm. Whether you intended it or not, the fact is that the video went viral, and caused great harm." He added: "You knew that conduct was forbidden."
Morgan Farr Varney
Prison guard Morgan Farr Varney’s “physical and romantic relationship" with an inmate while working at HMP Lindholme was exposed after she was caught on CCTV sneaking into a cupboard with the man. A search of the inmate’s cell then led discovery of a tranche of love letters, with more found during a search of Farr Varney’s bedroom.
Farr Varney - who appeared on ITV’s This Morning last year to complain of her issues with an online dentistry service - was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in January 2023. In an interview, she told officers she "proper fell in love" with the inmate, and said she was worried that she had "f****d" her life up. After being arrested in January 2023 Farr Varney quit her job at the prison, with the inmate transferred to another prison.
But their relationship continued, and police officers later found more photographs of Farr Varney on the inmate following his move to HMP Wealstun in West Yorkshire. Farr Varney pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office at Sheffield Crown Court on April 16 last year, and was remanded in custody.
Morgan Farr Varney, who once appeared on ITV’s This Morning, has been jailed for her affair with a prison inmate(Image: ITV)
Ayshea Gunn
Officer Ayshea Gunn, 27, was jailed for 12 months in December 2019 after having a four-month fling with inmate Khuram Razaq, 29, who was serving time for armed robbery and assault. The pair exchanged more than 1,200 phone calls, including explicit video calls, some of which were streamed over the internet while the prisoner was serving time at HMP Berwyn in Wrexham.
Gunn, who has a degree in criminology and psychology, smuggled items into the prison for Razaq, including clothes, a smartwatch and a pair of knickers. Some of the calls were made via a third party in Birmingham in order to cover her tracks, and on other occasions she pretended to be someone else when calling the phone in his cell.
Judge Niclas Parry, sentencing Gunn after she admitted misconduct in a public office, said the images were "highly sexualised and pornographic images" created "at significant risk". Defence barriset Peter Hunter said Gunn had become depressed and was "at the bottom in her world", adding: "Somebody showed her affection and she stupidly accepted." Razaq admitted two charges of possessing a specified item inside a prison.
She smuggled clothes, a smartwatch and a pair of knickers into the prison for Razaq
Jennifer Gavan
Corrupt prison officer Jennifer Gavan was jailed in December 2022 for having an inappropriate relationship with prisoner Alex Coxon, also at HMP Berwyn in Wales, where she was working in April 2020. Coxon, 25, bribed Gavan with £150 to give him a mobile phone, which they used to secretly conduct their relationship.
A court heard the pair were rumbled after Coxon’s phone was discovered underneath a laptop in his cell with explicit videos found on it which had been sent through Snapchat. Gavan later admitted to sending the image and that she’d kissed Coxon, an inmate with a track record of drugs and robbery.
She was described by her own barrister as having "immaturity with an element of naivety", but had shown "empathy" for inmates unable to see visitors during the Covid lockdowns. She had just come out of a very lengthy relationship and was "manipulated" into thinking she was in love. Gavan was jailed for eight months after pleading guilty to misconduct in a pulic office and Coxon was handed 10 months for having a prohibited item in jail.
Three illicit romances went under the radar at HMP Berwyn between 2019 and 2020(Image: Daily Post Wales)
Corinne Redhead
In 2022, officer Corinne Redhead, 29, was jailed for having an inmate’s baby following a secret year-long fling with convicted robber Robert O’Connor at The Mount prison in Hertfordshire. O’Connor was serving a 10-year sentence when Redhead was working as a supervisor on the wing. The relationship lasted from January 2018 to January 2019.
Redhead was caught at six months pregnant after a tip-off led to her fellow officers to search his single cell, where a Samsung Galaxy mobile was found hidden in the U-bend of his toilet. Redhead’s number was saved on the phone under the name "my baby" and they had shared video calls and messages which showed they were having a sexual relationship.
Redhead later gave birth to a child and named O’Connor as the father on the birth certificate. Drea Becker, mitigating, told Luton Crown Court that Redhead made a "terrible mistake" and "expresses remorse and shame". She was jailed for 25 months.
Why do prison flings happen?
Criminologist and psychologist Alex Iszatt told the Mirror that these inappropriate flings "occur regularly in prisons, but they are not always driven by sexual attraction". She said a number of factors play a role in a jail fling forming, including "emotional attachment, vulnerability, dependency, power dynamics, trauma bonding and grooming".
Alex explained: "When women work in male-dominated prisons, they can become rare, sexualised objects of attention. This dynamic has been portrayed in porn, and occasionally, the boundaries between fantasy and reality can blur." She said prisons can be "isolating environments" which leads officers and inmates to turn to each other.
"If officers aren’t trained to set boundaries, and supervisors fail to manage effectively, situations can quickly get out of hand - especially if the individual lacks emotional support outside of work," the criminologist continued. Alex said female officers may be more susceptible to relationships if they are "emotionally vulnerable or lonely".
"Inmates may exploit these vulnerabilities, particularly if they sense that the officer is seeking emotional validation or attention," she said. Once this relationship takes off, another level of mind games comes into play, with "fear of retaliation, loss of earnings, and loss of respect" potentially forcing the relationship to last longer than planned.
"Ultimately, inappropriate relationships between female correctional officers and inmates are not primarily driven by physical attractiveness. Rather, they stem from emotional vulnerability, manipulation, power dynamics, and the stresses of the prison environment, all of which can contribute to boundary-crossing," Alex concluded.
In response to the recent surge in the number of prison officers in the UK charged with having sexual encounters with the prisoners, an MoJ spokesman told the Mirror: "The vast majority of our prison officers are honest and hard-working. We will always take robust action against those who are not."
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