By FRED SHUSTER
A Pennsylvania man has been arrested and charged after allegedly coercing a 13-year-old Northridge girl to send him sexually explicit material of herself and images of self-harm over the internet.
Matthew Edward Pysher, 18, of Bangor, Pennsylvania was arrested late Friday, Feb. 20, in a Castaic motel where he was holed up with the girl, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said.
Pysher is charged with travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison.
The case represents a “growing threat to American families,” Essayli said.
Court papers detail the nature of NVEs — nihilistic violent extremists — a new FBI category linked to suspects who allegedly engage in criminal conduct in furtherance of political, social or religious ideology deriving from a hatred of society and a desire to bring about chaos and social instability.
Based on contents of the victim’s smartphone and Pysher’s online activities, law enforcement officials say they believe the defendant is associated with NVE ideology.
“It is evil and it is sadistic,” Essayli told reporters at a downtown Los Angeles news conference on Monday, Feb. 23. “They look for kids who are depressed and vulnerable. … It is a very sick and twisted ideology.”
According to an affidavit filed in Los Angeles federal court, Pysher allegedly groomed and encouraged the teen to send him material of herself engaging in sexually explicit acts. He also encouraged her to cut herself and engage in other acts of self-harm, prosecutors contend.
On Feb. 10, the victim’s mother contacted the FBI because she was concerned her daughter was being encouraged to harm herself by a person named “Matthew,” who the victim met on the Discord online platform, court papers say.
Federal prosecutors said Pysher traveled to Los Angeles Friday, Feb. 20, to meet the victim near her San Fernando Valley home and took her to a motel in Castaic, prosecutors allege.
Pyser made his initial federal court appearance Monday afternoon, Feb. 23, and was ordered detained pending trial. Arraignment is scheduled for March 31.