Australian police say a 42-year-old man who allegedly posed as Justin Bieber online to solicit explicit images from children has been charged with more than 900 child sex offenses.
Bieber, a 23-year-old Canadian pop singer, is currently in Australia performing his "Purpose World Tour." Police on Thursday warned young fans and their parents to be extra vigilant when using the internet.
Gordon Douglas Chalmers, a law lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, was charged in November with using Facebook and Skype to impersonate the star after tip-offs from U.S. and German authorities.
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."
"The fact that so many children could believe that they were communicating with this particular celebrity highlights the need fora 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.
