SICK

Sadist Who Groomed Girls to Cut and Starve Themselves Gets 27 Years

He targeted girls with emotional problems online.

A California man who targeted emotionally troubled girls and groomed them to perform masochistic acts—including cutting and starving themselves—was sentenced Tuesday to 27 years in prison. Among Matthew Christian Locher’s crimes: encouraging a 12-year-old to kill her parents, set her home on fire, and become his sex slave. The girl did, in fact, set fire to the house and set out to meet 32-year-old Locher, prosecutors said. “[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 [Locher’s] hands,” they wrote in a sentencing memo.