Dennis Malcolm Rayner pleaded guilty to series of child sexual abuse offences

A northern suburbs fitness guru pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and trying to groom a child who was actually an undercover cop.

A northern suburbs man has pleaded guilty to trying to groom a child when he was actually talking to an undercover cop.

Dennis Malcolm Rayner, 52, pleaded guilty to multiple charges of communicating to make a child amenable to sexual activity and one of knowingly possessing child exploitation material.

Just hours before he was arrested in November Rayner, of Gawler, was working out, posting a gym workout to his well-used online fitness profile.

Rayner became the third northern suburbs man arrested and charged with the same offences in the space of two weeks.

There is no suggestion any of the allegations are linked.

Dennis Rayner pleaded guilty to communicating to make a child amenable to sexual activity. Photo: Facebook

He also pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material. Picture: Facebook

During Rayner’s bail application in November, a police prosecutor asked the court to restrict Rayner’s use of internet and electronic devices and bar him from communicating with children.

He told the court Rayner had been arrested after “interacting” with a “covert police officer”.

The arrest came after an investigation by detectives from the SA Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team, known as JACET.

JACET is a partnership between SA Police and the Australian Federal Police.

Court documents show Rayner communicated to make a child amenable to sexual activity twice on May 24, last year again on May 25, and a fourth time on July 19.

He was also caught in the possession of child exploitation material on November 23, when he was arrested, according to the documents.

Ronald Gary Dubois, 55, who was arrested shortly after Rayner in the SA surge, was jailed for over two years last month after pleading guilty to five counts of communicating to make a child amenable to sexual activity.

During sentencing, the District Court heard Dubois joined a group called ‘Adelaide teens’ on the social media application Kik in October.

Dubois engaged in a sexualised conversation with a covert police officer who was purporting to be a 14-year-old girl.
He then took the day off work in order to meet up with the fictitious child at the Salisbury Railway Station on November 16.
Dubois was arrested by police on the platform.

Speaking generally at the time of the men’s arrest, Detective Chief Insp Lambert said since January 1 last year, 24 children had been “saved” by JACET.

Detective Chief Insp Lambert said JACET investigations varied, but could go on for years.

“Investigations can vary depending on the information we’ve got, but if it’s our own investigation it could take a number of months – and possibly years,” he said.

“It could involve investigating people over a long period of time who are communicating on the internet, and sometimes it takes time to identify and get information about certain people operating on the internet.

“Then there’s other information, particularly if it’s local, tends to be a lot quicker because we can get access to information very quickly.”

On Friday, Rayner’s charges were adjourned until later this month.