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MISSOULA- A Ronan man has been accused of sending lewd text messages to a 13-year-old Missoula girl that he never met.

Lawrence Mays is facing sexual abuse of children charges, after a Missoula mother called police in early September saying her 13-year-old daughter started receiving explicit pictures and messages on her phone.

Missoula Police Detective Chris Shermer took over the conversation, posing as the girl's 14-year-old cousin. Mays allegedly continued sending explicit pictures and adult pornography to Shermer, whom he thought was a 14-year-old girl.

Shermer adds the girl's mother did the right thing by not interfering in the conversation and going to the police for help.

"We all want to make contact really early on to tell them, 'hey, you're talking to a 13-year-old girl. You shouldn't be sending these types of texts, or get lost, or whatever," Shermer said.

"[The mother] came to us, she knew that we were able to do this type of stuff is take the time to kind of weed him out an that's what we did," he added.

Mays is currently in jail on a $25,000 bail.