A former Southern California man who persuaded troubled girls as young as 12 to perform acts of masochism and urged one to become his sexual slave was sentenced on Tuesday to 27 years in prison.
The US Attorney’s office said in a statement that Matthew Christian Locher was “a parent’s worst nightmare.”
Loescher pleaded guilty last August to one count sexual exploitation of a child for the purpose of producing a sexually explicit visual depiction.
Man Who Convinced Girls To Perform Masonic Works Urged To Be 12 To Be Guilty
In the plea agreement, prosecutors said Loescher, 32, admitted that while living in Redondo Beach in 2020 and 2021, Loescher engaged in online conversations targeting girls with mental health issues such as depression, schizophrenia, anorexia and suicidal thoughts.
“Loescher conditioned his victims to engage in self-mutilation, ordered a victim with an eating disorder to starve herself, and ordered her to film herself cutting her own body when she disobeyed him,” the US Attorney’s office statement said.
Matthew Christian Locher has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison. (Fox News)
two girls They sent him photos and videos of self-harm, including slashing their chests with razor blades, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors alleged that he convinced a third victim, a 12-year-old girl, to run away from her home in Ohio and try to get to California to have sex with him.
Click here for the FOX NEWS app
Prosecutors alleged that the girl, with Locher’s encouragement, set her house on fire in a failed attempt to kill her parents.
Locher had promised he would take her “bring her.” to CaliforniaAnd he made her his “slave,” the US Attorney’s Office said.
Lusher moved to Indiana in 2021 after authorities searched his home. He was captured in January 2022 in Indianapolis and brought back to California.