Loose Women’s Denise Welch is furious over the rape of an athlete competing in the 2024 Olympics

Denise Welch was frustrated that Steven van de Velde received little retribution for raping a 12-year-old girl after Charlotte Dujardin was suspended from school for her own actions.

The 39-year-old British dressage star had to withdraw her participation in the 2024 Olympic Games after footage showed her repeatedly hitting a horse’s hind legs. The governing body of British equestrian sport, the FEI, subsequently suspended her.

But while the dressage rider continues to face criticism for a “miscarriage of justice”, Loose Women judge Denise Welch was furious when she learned that Steven van de Velde was chosen to represent the Netherlands on beach volleyball despite his rape conviction.

Speaking to her co-stars Judi Love, Mariella Frostrup and Coleen Nolan about Charlotte Dujardin, Denise fumed: “The headlines in all the newspapers this week and on TV this morning are about the cruelty to this horse and I completely understand that.” She then turned to Steven van de Velde.

“He represents the Netherlands in beach volleyball,” the former Coronation Street actress explained. “He is an accused rapist and is in prison. He was 18, 19 years old when he found out the girl was 12. He raped the girl and admitted it.”

She then summed up the situation in a dismayed tone: “He was sentenced to four years in prison, of which he has served one year. He is supported by the Olympic Games board and they say: ‘We have prepared everything, he is not allowed to meet anyone.'”

Denise was visibly upset as she added: “We talk about violence against women and make headlines with this serious situation in equestrian sport, but no one on the front pages seems to be talking about what is going on.”

Steven van de Velde was found guilty of raping the girl in a flat in Milton Keynes ten years ago. The then 19-year-old had met her on Facebook and travelled to the UK. Police became aware of the rape after his victim went to a family planning clinic to look for the morning-after pill.

In 2016, he was sentenced to four years in prison at Aylesbury Crown Court after pleading guilty to three counts of rape and served a year in a Dutch prison before his release.

Dutch Olympic officials say Van de Velde “sought and received professional advice and demonstrated self-awareness and self-reflection to those around him – both privately and professionally.”

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