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10th Mar 2017

A man posing online as Justin Bieber charged with nearly 1,000 child sex crimes

Rory Cashin

Justin Bieber Irish

A 42-year-old law lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology has been charged with pretending to be Justin Bieber online and soliciting explicit pictures of minors.

According to NBC News, the man was first charged back in November 2016, but this week was officially charged with 931 child sex offences, including the possession of child porn.

Police Detective Inspector Jon Rouse said in a statement: “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. The breadth of offences committed in this instance is frankly horrendous.”

Police haven’t released how many children were involved in the case, and which countries the children were living in.

The official Justin Bieber Twitter account has 92 million followers, and online taskforces and social media platforms have been attempting to crack down on multiple fake accounts by means of verification and official online accounts.

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