John Francis Dionne, 43, of Linden, Alta., is charged with the abduction of a girl from a Calgary mall on Thursday. (Calgary Police Service)

The RCMP have ordered an independent review of a controversial traffic stop near Calgary on Thursday.

A short time after a 10-year-old girl was abducted from Deerfoot Mall in the city's northeast at 6:30 p.m. MT Thursday, an RCMP officer pulled over a driver for speeding near Airdrie.

Police believe the driver was 43-year-old John Francis Dionne, a convicted sex offender who has now been charged with kidnapping, child abduction, assault and impersonating a police officer.

In October 2010, the RCMP issued a public warning about Dionne, his history of violence and sexual offences against females as young as 10 and his status as HIV-positive. He was at a high risk to reoffend, police said at the time.

It's not known if the officer at the traffic stop was aware of that information, but the officer gave the man a speeding ticket and allowed him to drive away. A young girl was present, but didn't say anything to the officer.

The abducted girl was dropped off a short time later and called 911 from a McDonald's restaurant in Airdrie.

Dionne was arrested at a residence in Linden, a village about 75 kilometres northeast of Calgary, on Friday night after a tip from the public.

Sgt. Tim Taniguchi said senior RCMP officers decided Monday to order an independent investigation into what happened during the traffic stop.

"The independence of it is a factor … and it's just to ensure that another unit or another investigator outside of that business line take a look at that incident," said Taniguchi.

He said it's not known how long the investigation will take. It will be conducted by a senior non-commissioned officer who is outside of the RCMP's Integrated Traffic Unit, to which the officer who did the traffic stop belongs.

Meanwhile, Dionne made a brief court appearance in Calgary court Monday morning via closed-circuit television.

He will be back in court March 14.