LOS ANGELES - A man who used to live in Redondo Beach was sentenced Tuesday to 324 months — or 27 years — in federal prison for forcing underaged girls he met online to commit acts of self-harm, and even in one case, convincing a girl to try and kill her parents.
Matthew Locher pleaded guilty in August 2022 to one count of sexual exploitation and attempted sexual exploitation of a child for the purpose of producing a sexually explicit visual depiction.
In a sentencing hearing Tuesday, the judge called Locher "a parent's worst nightmare" who committed "monstrous acts" on young girls.
According to the criminal complaint, Locher met multiple young girls online between November 2020 and May 2021, and specifically targeted girls suffering from depression, suicidal thoughts. In at least two cases Locher was accused of convincing the girls to cut or starve themselves, and send him videos of them doing it.
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In another instance, Locher convinced a 12-year-old girl to run away from her Ohio home to be with him in California, and encouraged her to try and kill her parents by setting her house on fire, which she tried to do.
Locher was arrested in Indianapolis in January 2022.
"Locher’s victims are real people – real girls who turned to the internet to seek help with their struggles with anorexia, schizophrenia, and depression, and tragically fell into [his] hands," prosecutors said in a sentencing memo. "[He] knew he was talking to kids, wanted to be talking to kids, and knew kids were, in fact, harming themselves at his urging."
In addition to the nearly three decades in prison, the judge ordered Locher pay more than $25,000 to his victims, and ordered he be placed on lifetime supervised release when he is released from prison.