Paula Stanton, aged 62, of Severn Avenue, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, has been sentenced to 160 days’ imprisonment at Cardiff Crown Court after pleading guilty to committing an act outraging public decency inside University Hospital of Wales.
The court heard the incident took place during the early hours of Sunday, 17 May, after Stanton was brought to the hospital by ambulance to undergo an assessment regarding concerns surrounding self-harm.
Prosecutor Lewis Ball described the incident to the court: “The defendant put her hands down her leggings to the groin area. Staff could see that she had her penis in her hand and that her hand was moving up and down. This was happening on and off. He made eye contact with one nurse while he was doing it. Hospital security was called but when they arrived, it had stopped.”
Following an arrest by attending police officers, Stanton told police: “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Stanton subsequently appeared in court and entered a formal guilty plea to carrying out an act outraging public decency.
The court was informed that Stanton has accumulated 12 convictions spanning 19 offences.
In August 2024, Stanton received a 12-month custodial sentence for two counts of outraging public decency after touching oneself sexually in a flat window while wearing underwear beneath a dressing gown in view of female passersby, subsequently leaving a note under a vehicle’s windscreen.
The hospital offence additionally placed Stanton in breach of a six-month suspended sentence handed down in August of the previous year for exposure.
Mitigating, defence barrister Alice Sykes submitted that Stanton had remained remanded in prison custody since May, serving the equivalent of a two-month sentence prior to the final hearing.
Sentencing Stanton, Recorder Barry Clarke determined that the gravity of the behaviour in a hospital environment warranted immediate custody.
The judge imposed a 100-day term for outraging public decency and ordered an additional 60 days to run consecutively for breaching the suspended sentence, resulting in an aggregate term of 160 days.
Release Calculation: Under UK determinate sentencing provisions applicable to short custodial terms, Stanton is required to serve approximately 40 per cent (64 days) of the total 160-day sentence in prison custody, minus days already served on secure remand, before statutory release on licence to serve the remainder under probation supervision.
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