Ex-ice dancer charged in Estero sex assault case gets jail, listing as sexual offender
A former ice dancer training in Southwest Florida and arrested in 2020 on charges of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Lee County girl will serve a year in jail.
Dane Francis Ayers, 22, on Monday pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious conduct before Lee County Judge Nicholas Thompson.
Ayers' jail time will be followed by 10 years of sex offender probation and he must register as a sex offender. He was given credit for two days in jail.
The charges, filed in 2020, included alleged multiple sexual contacts between the skater and the teen girl he met while training at Estero's Hertz Arena.
Previously: Ice dancer charged in sex assault on Lee 13-year-old faces similar Collier charges
U.S. ice dancer arrested, charged in sexual assault on 14-year-old Lee County girl
Similar charges filed in 2020 against Ayers in Collier County were disposed after a no information filing in January 2021.
Ayers, an ice dancer from Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested Sept. 8, 2020, by the Lee County Sheriff's Office and accused of engaging in sex with an girl between 12 and 16. In Florida, statutory rape law is violated when a person has consensual sexual intercourse with an individual younger than 18.
An arrest warrant from the Sheriff's Office said Ayers, then 19 and living in Estero, met the victim, then 13, during training at the arena and sexual contact took place in various U.S. and international cities between September and December 2019.
Sex crime reported
The contact came to light in June 2020 when a past-occurred sex crime was reported to the Collier County Sheriff's Office. The Collier agency then contacted the Lee County Sheriff's Office because the girl reported that the assaults took place in Lee County.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office report said that in a subsequent interview with the Collier County Children's Advocacy Center, the victim said she met Ayers on Sept. 11, 2019. She said the contact was as friends, but Ayers soon began pushing for more.
She said that by the end of September she and Ayers started having sexual contact in the back seat of his Tesla in multiple locations including parked behind Hertz Arena, at Miromar Outlets, Coastland Center mall, and the Mercato movie theater parking garage.
Similar sexual contact also took place, she told investigators, in a hotel room in Orlando and while in the country of Turkey.
In an interview with the Collier County Sheriff's Office, the victim's parents reported their daughter had exhibited a change in behavior and performance at school and had disclosed the sexual contact with Ayers to a mental health counselor.
The counselor reported the contact to the Florida Department of Children and Family Services, which assigned an investigator to the case, the Lee County Sheriff's Office report said.
Suspect befriended parents
During the four-months the contact happened, the victim went to the movies with Ayers, the Lee County Sheriff's Office report said, and Ayers had befriended the parents, building trust.
One of the parents told Collier investigators that there were times when the daughter and Ayers were together and not in the parent's presence.
During the contact between Ayers and the girl he was living in Villagio, a gated community in Estero. The assaults ended when Ayers returned to Arizona, the Lee County Sheriff's Office report said.
Ayers told the victim not to tell anyone about the contact because he knew it was illegal. She said he discussed with her several times about the illegality of the contact.
According to TheSports.org, Ayers had been competing internationally for Bulgaria in mixed ice dancing. His most recent results was a 19th place in Riga in 2019.
Ayers was temporarily suspended from U.S. Figure Skating in July and permanently sanctioned on Sept. 2, 2020.
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Lehigh Acres man on sexual offender probation for lewd, lascivious behavior
Fort Myers man who abused child for years from age 5 sentenced to 20 years in prison
Cape Coral man charged with three counts in 2020 lewd and lascivious case
Skating sanctions
The sanction made him ineligible from participating any event, program, activity, or competition authorized by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, the National Governing Bodies recognized by the committee, any High Performance Management Organization, or at a facility under their jurisdiction.
Information on Ayers' Facebook page indicated he attended Gilbert Christian Schools and Perry High School in Gilbert, Arizona.
Connect with breaking news reporter Michael Braun: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook), @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter) or mbraun@news-press.com.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Arizona ice dancer to serve year in jail in assault of teen in Estero
