A 42-year-old university lecturer in Australia, who posed online as Justin Bieber and persuaded fans to send explicit images, has been charged with 931 child sex offences, police said Thursday.
The accused man, a law lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, was arrested in November on a string of child sex
offences after a tip-off from German and US authorities, which led the police to raid his home.
He allegedly used Facebook and Skype to impersonate as the pop star and solicit such images from young children. Queensland police said
in a statement his offending dates back to at least 2007.
Since his arrest, he was accused of possessing child exploitation material and grooming children.
“After a thorough examination of the man’s computer, he has this week been further charged with another 931 child sex offences,” police
said, which includes rape, indecent treatment of children, and making child exploitation material.
The police did not detail where the children were from.
Police detective Jon Rouse said the offences were “horrendous” and the allegations showed “the global reach and skill that child sex offenders have to groom and seduce victims.”
Rouse also warned the singer’s young fans and parents to be vigilant.
“The fact that so many children could believe that they were communicating with this particular celebrity highlights the need for a serious rethink about the way that we as a society educate our children about online safety,” Rouse said in the statement.
The accused man is set to appear in the Brisbane Court on April 6.
