Melbourne trainer pleads guilty to child exploitation offences
Melbourne personal trainer Leroy Anthony Sevillano, 29, has pleaded guilty to child abuse material and child exploitation offences, shaking the city's fitness community. He admitted at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday to soliciting and transmitting child abuse material and to illegal conduct making it easier to procure a child for sex outside Australia, both relating to November 2022. Sevillano, who worked at various Anytime Fitness franchises and is also a competitive powerlifter, was well known and popular with clients, adding to the shock within the local gym community.
Victoria Police charged Sevillano in March this year following an investigation by the Melbourne Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team, with officers stating the offending occurred while the child was outside Australia. He had originally faced five charges, but three were withdrawn at Friday's hearing, including alleged procurement of a child abroad for sexual activity, transmitting indecent communication and obtaining child pornography from outside Australia. Sevillano, from Cranbourne West, remains on bail and is due to face the County Court for a pre-sentence hearing in February next year.
- Melbourne personal trainer Leroy Sevillano, 29, pleads guilty to child sex offences
- Offences involved a child abroad, occurred in November 2022
- Three other charges withdrawn; sentencing hearing set for February 2027
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Melbourne personal trainer Leroy Anthony Sevillano, 29, worked at several Anytime Fitness gyms across the city and was also known as a competitive powerlifter. He was a familiar and well-liked figure among clients, which is part of why the case has had such an impact on the local fitness community. He was charged in March this year by Victoria Police following an investigation by a specialist unit that deals with sexual offences and child abuse cases.
The charges relate to conduct in November 2022 involving child abuse material and actions said to have made it easier to procure a child for sex while that child was outside Australia. Cases of this kind typically progress through an initial hearing in a magistrates' court, where charges are heard and a plea entered, before moving to a higher court such as the County Court for sentencing if a guilty plea is made.
Sevillano lives in Cranbourne West, a suburb in Melbourne's outer south-east, and has been on bail throughout the legal process. The case matters because it involves serious child protection offences and has drawn attention due to his public profile within the gym and fitness scene, prompting scrutiny of how such matters are identified and prosecuted.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “Child sex crimes rock Melbourne’s gym community as popular Anytime Fitness personal trainer Leroy Sevillano admits his guilt”.