A transgender woman and former soldier has been jailed for masturbating in front of nurses at a hospital in Wales. Paula Stanton, 62, of Severn Avenue in Barry, committed the sexual act at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff on Sunday, May 17.
The Falklands War veteran had been taken to the hospital by ambulance in the early hours of May 17 after making threats of self-harm, Cardiff Magistrates' Court heard. Prosecutor Lewis Ball told the court that while the defendant sat in the waiting area awaiting a mental health evaluation, she placed her hand down her trousers "in the groin area."
Mr Ball said: "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."
The court heard how Stanton was masturbating "in full view" of the nurses' desk, making eye contact with a nurse on duty. Mr Ball added: "This was happening on and off. He made eye contact with one nurse while he was doing it."
The police were called, and when officers turned up and arrested Stanton, she told them: "I've done nothing wrong."
Stanton pleaded guilty to carrying out an act of outraging public decency. She has 12 previous convictions for 19 offences, five of which are sex offences committed between 2019 and 2025. In November 2019, Stanton received a five-year sexual harm prevention order for outraging public decency. She was then given another five-year sexual harm prevention order in August 2025 for indecent exposure offences.
She was also jailed for 12 months in August 2024 for two counts of committing an act outraging public decency. The offence involved a sex act while wearing a black bra and white knickers under a dressing gown as women walked past. Stanton also left a note under one victim's car windscreen asking her to keep looking. Another offence also saw Stanton performing a sex act in a car.
The latest offence puts Stanton in breach of a six-month suspended prison sentence for an offence of indecent exposure committed in August 2025. Stanton's barrister, Alice Sykes, told the court that her client had already served the equivalent of a two-month jail sentence while being remanded in custody in May.
The judge, Recorder Barry Clarke, told the defendant the offending was so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence would be justified. Stanton has been jailed for 100 days for outraging public decency, with 60 days to run consecutively for the breach of the suspended sentence. She will be released after serving 70 days in custody, with the remainder of her sentence to be served on licence.
