Man jailed over online child sex offences

A man has been jailed after he sent sexual messages to online accounts he thought belonged to children.

Paul Hamilton, 33, pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child to watch or look at an image of sexual activity in January.

It came after he was arrested in December for sending inappropriate messages to two different online accounts he believed were being run by teenage girls, Staffordshire Police said.

Hamilton, of no fixed address in Stoke-on-Trent, was handed a prison term of one year and 10 months at the city's crown court on Thursday.

He was also put on the sex offenders register for 10 years and served with a sexual harm prevention order.

He was also ordered to pay a £228 victim surcharge.

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