Stafford sex offender jailed after arranging to meet '13-year-old' girl at train station
A sex offender who sent explicit images of himself to a 13-year-old girl and arranged to meet up with her has been jailed.
Paul Donaldson, aged 28, of Stafford, was arrested by officers at Stafford train station on November 27, 2025, when he arranged to meet what he believed to be a teenage girl there.
Upon seizing his phone, Staffordshire Police investigators found that he had been communicating with an online account of a teenage girl.
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Donaldson asked for her age, and despite being told that she was 13, still persisted in sending an explicit photo of himself, and arranging to meet her at a train station, where they would then go to a nearby hotel.
When he was brought in to custody, Donaldson answered no comment to police questioning; however, investigators had all the evidence they needed to charge him with a number of offences.
He pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing to arranging the commission of a child sexual offence, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, and sending a photograph of genitals to cause alarm, distress or humiliation.
He was sentenced to two years and six months in prison at Stafford Crown Court on Tuesday, March 10.
He was also put onto the Sex Offenders Register for life, and given a 20-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Detective Constable Georgina Brotherhood, from the force's police online investigations team, said: "Donaldson was persistent in his pursuit of this person and has rightfully been brought to justice for his actions.
“We’re working extremely hard every single day in Staffordshire to build and action intelligence against those who pose a risk to children and vulnerable people in our communities, and this is another example of that."
