By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-08 22:45:59 | Updated at 2026-08-08 23:07:36
30 minutes ago
A convicted serial rapist who stalked his prey on Tinder could walk free this October after serving less than a year in prison — and one of his victims “terrified” after her 11-year battle to lock him up.
“The Office” actress Shira Scott Astrof is one of the at least half a dozen women in Los Angeles that Matthew Werner has been accused of catfishing on dating apps and brutally sexually assaulting.
Werner, 49, is up for parole in October, only nine months after being sentenced to four years in prison, according to online records.
“It’s like a never-ending battle, and it shouldn’t be this hard,” Astrof told The Post. “There’s no justice system here. We have to be our own advocate.”
Astrof, whose credits include “Criminal Minds,” met Werner, who’s originally from Massachusetts, on the online dating app in 2015, except he was masquerading as Sebastian Larsson, a soccer star from Sweden.
On the day of their scheduled date, Astrof said she wasn’t feeling well and Werner offered to bring soup to her apartment.
She said he was nice at first, but then brazenly revealed he brought cocaine and allegedly did a line in front of her.
Then he attacked her from behind, Astrof recalled.
He choked her and dislocated her shoulder during the horrific assault — leaving her on the floor as he walked out.
“He’s a coward that has to attack you when your back is turned,” Astrof said. “He has no soul.”
She reported the attack to police immediately and was rushed to the hospital.
Astrof said that in the years to come, she was told by Los Angeles County officials that her case wasn’t strong enough on its own, and that she’d need another one of his victims to come forward to testify alongside her.
Police eventually tied Werner to at least half a dozen rapes across Los Angeles County, according to news reports at the time.
He was finally arrested in 2023 in Las Vegas.
Authorities believe there were several other victims who did not report the heinous assaults. He was charged with three counts of sexual assault against two women, including Astrof.
Cops said he used different aliases on social media to find victims for his drug-fueled attacks.
“He was a real Jekyll and Hyde,” LAPD Detective Brent Hopkins told the Los Angeles Times.
The case never went to trial. Instead, Werner was offered a sweet plea deal in 2023 — no contest to one count of felony assault and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery. He was given probation, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, and had to register as a sex offender.
He was finally sentenced to four years in prison in February, after a judge ruled he had violated his probation for a third time. Among his violations were traveling out of state and using fake aliases to talk to women online once again.
“I kept emailing them and I kept saying like, ‘You need to find him, you need to trace him. I know that he’s not abiding by anything,’” Astrof said. “I’ve just been the detective on my own case in every way.”
Astrof finally felt relief when the four-year sentence was handed down.
But she is now terrified again.
She was checking his prison status, online as she routinely does, and saw he was up for parole in October.
“I spoke to the two main detectives on the case two days ago, and they both had no idea why it was happening,” she said.
“I’m a sitting target. He knows everything about me, he knows where I live. He won’t stop, we already know that. He’s already violated every single part of his probation.”
She blames Los Angeles and California’s soft on crime criminal justice system for the lenient punishment — specifically Democratic Judge Serena Raquel Murillo, who approved Werner’s sweetheart plea deal.
“She was so disrespectful,” Astrof said of Murillo, who was nominated as a federal district judge by former President Joe Biden in November 2024, and was appointed to the role in January 2025.
“She violated every single one of my . . . rights” to fairness, privacy and safety, Astrof said.
The LA District Attorney’s Office declined to comment and Murillo did not respond to a request.
With little faith left in the criminal justice system, Astrof is calling upon other survivors of Werner’s alleged assaults to come forward.
“I just wish I could get the message to them that, ‘He’s already been convicted of raping someone. I’ve already done the legwork. You just have to come forward,'” she pleaded.
“I just need one of them, just one to come forward and keep him there.”
Werner’s lawyer did not return a request for comment.
