Investigators are praising an Edmonton mother for stopping a meeting between her 13-year-old daughter and a 22-year-old man whom police have accused of travelling from Australia to have sex with the underage girl.



“It was her quick thinking that potentially protected her daughter from being the victim of a sexual assault," Insp. Dave Dubnyk, who oversees the Internet Child Exploitation Unit with the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team, told an Edmonton news conference Friday.



Investigators said a man met the girl over a gaming platform in October 2016 and regularly exchanged sexually explicit chats and photos.



The victim's mother contacted Edmonton police after discovering the online conversations just as he arrived in Canada, investigators said.



Dubnyk said the mother became suspicious of her daughter's weekend plans and went through her phone to get to the bottom of it. That's when she found the explicit conversations between her daughter and the man and learned of their plans to meet at an Edmonton hotel.



The mother contacted police immediately. Instead of meeting with the girl in his hotel room Feb. 10, the man was greeted by officers, who arrested him.



The man’s home in Chatswood, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, was searched by the New South Wales Police Force on Feb. 21. Investigators seized a computer and other electronic devices that will now undergo forensic examination.



Jiashu Weng, 22, is charged with luring a child under 14 years of age, possession of child pornography and distributing child pornography.



Weng showed no emotion while the details of the charges were read aloud in court at an interim release hearing Friday afternoon, but waved to his mother in the gallery after the hearing. His mother listened intently as the judge outlined the conditions of Weng's release on a $40,000 cash bond.



After Weng is released from custody on a promise to return to Edmonton for any trial or sentencing that may ensue, while in Canada he must be on good behaviour and is banned from contacting the underage girl either directly or indirectly, possessing any cellphone or electronic device that can send or receive messages, or having any computer or other device that can connect to the Internet. Weng was also ordered to stay away from any parks, pools or other public places where there is a reasonable expectation children will be present and from having any contact with anyone under the age of 16.



It is likely Weng — an Australian university student in his last year who comes from a wealthy family and lives with his mother — will be charged with similar offences when he returns to Australia, said Crown prosecutor Craig Krieger, who consulted with lawyers in Australia.

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