Former Redondo Beach man admits to convincing underage girls to send him video, pictures of self-mutilation

A former Redondo Beach man pleaded guilty to charges he targeted girls underage girls online with mental health issues and convincing them to take pictures and videos of them cutting themselves.

Matthew Christian Locher, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a child for the purpose of producing a sexually explicit visual depiction. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.

In a plea agreement, Locher admitted to targeting girls who suffered from mental health issues including depression, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders between November 2020 and May 2021. Locher groomed the girls into self-mutilation, instructing one girl struggling with an eating disorder to starve herself, then film herself cutting her body when she disobeyed him. Locher convinced two of the victims to send him images and videos hurting themselves, which included cutting their breasts with razor blades, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say Locher encouraged a third girl, who was 12 years old, who kill her parents and run away from her home in Ohio so she could have sex with him and be his "slave" in California. The girl went so far as to set her family's home on fire, but did not succeed in killing her parents, according to the Department of Justice.

Locher was arrested in January of this year in Indianapolis, where he moved to in the summer of 2021 after a search warrant was executed at his home. He was brought back to California, and has been in federal custody since then.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 17, 2023.