Hundreds of explicit messages to 13-year-old

A 39-year-old Christchurch man who sent sexually explicit messages and photos to a

13-year-old girl was caught when he did the same to an undercover detective. Mathew James Momo was sentenced to four months’ community detention and intensive supervision for one year and six months by the Christchurch District Court yesterday. He had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of indecent communication with a young person under the age of 16. The offending began in June last year when Momo sent a Facebook friend request to a

13-year-old girl whowas in the care of Oranga Tamariki. Yesterday, Judge Paul Kellar said Momo continued to deny sending the messages and claimed he only pleaded guilty to ‘‘limit the damage done at sentencing’’. Momo had previously been convicted of sexual offences andwas subject to a supervision sentence while messaging the girl. The judge ordered Momo’s name be put on the child sex offender register.