Child molester Steven Van De Velde in the Dutch Olympic volleyball team

A convicted child abuser will represent the Netherlands in men’s beach volleyball at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

In 2014, Steven Van De Velde, then 19, flew to Milton Keynes, England and raped a 12-year-old child he had met on Facebook.

He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 and released in 2017.

Van de Velde, now 29, has been on the British sex offenders’ register for life since 2016 – but the Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Dutch Volleyball Federation (NSF) are sticking to their decision to let him represent their country on the world stage.

“We know Steven’s story. Before he expressed his desire to return to beach volleyball, we spoke extensively with him, but also with NOC*NSF and others,” said Michel Everaert, general director of Nevobo, in a statement.

Van de Velde’s case was heard in the United Kingdom at the Crown Court in Aylesbury.

The prosecution clarified that the victim, whose name remains anonymous, had openly told the volleyball star that she was seven years younger than him.

Sandra Beck, the lawyer in the case, said at the hearing: “She describes that she met Steven Van de Velde through Facebook. They spoke to each other regularly through Facebook and he made her feel special.”

Three days before an arrest warrant was issued against Van de Velde in 2015, he was named Dutch volleyball champion together with teammate Dirk Boehle – and was training for the 2016 Olympic team at the time, according to the Milton Keynes Citizen.

“You are of course allowed to judge. It was the biggest mistake of my life,” Van de Velde said in a video interview with Nevobo in 2018. “I can’t take it back, I did what I did, so I have to accept the consequences.”

The NOC said in a media statement that the volleyball player was able to return to the sport in 2018 after “intensive, professionally supervised development.”

“Van de Velde now meets all qualification requirements for the Olympic Games and is therefore part of the team,” it continued.

At the time of his sentencing, the judge said: “You were the adult, she was the child, and until you recognize that, you remain a danger to young girls.”

“The emotional damage done to this child is enormous,” the lawyer said. “When she grows up, she will have to realize that you are not the nice man she thought and hoped you were.”

After Van de Velde’s conviction in 2016, Everaert of Nevobo told the Milton Keynes resident: “He could have made it to the top.”