A man from Stoke-on-Trent has been jailed for almost two years for online child sexual offences.

Paul Hamilton, 33, was sentenced to one-year-and-10-months in prison at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Thursday (19 February).

He admitted two counts of attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to watch or look at an image of sexual activity and two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

As part of his sentencing, he was also put on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and served with a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

Detective Constable Emily Hanlon, from the Staffordshire Police public protection unit, said: "Hamilton sent persistent sexual messages to these accounts, believing them to belong to teenage girls.

"We're working proactively every single day in Staffordshire to identify perpetrators of these crimes, using a range of tactics to identify offenders and bring them before the courts.

"I'm pleased we've been able to put another sex offender behind bars as a result of this investigation."

Staffordshire Police arrested Hamilton in December last year after learning that he had been communicating sexually with two different online accounts, both of which he believed to belong to teenage girls at the time.

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He admitted to the offences at an earlier hearing in January.