Dutch volleyball player raped 12-year-old to compete in Olympics

A beach volleyball player convicted of raping a young girl is set to represent the Netherlands at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Steven van de Velde, who admitted to the triple rape of a 12-year-old British girl, will compete in one of two Dutch men’s beach volleyball teams next month with his volleyball partner Matthew Immers.

Van de Velde travelled from Amsterdam to the UK and raped the schoolgirl in 2014 after the couple met on Facebook. Van de Velde was aware of the child’s age at the time, a court later heard.

The volleyball player was sentenced to four years in prison in March 2016 after admitting three counts of rape.

He was released after serving only one year of his sentence.

The Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC) said in a statement that van de Velde, now 29, had met “all the qualification criteria for the Olympic Games.”

“Since 2018, Steven van de Velde has been taking part in international beach volleyball tournaments again after intensive, professionally supervised training,” the statement said.

Accordingly The Australian, Van de Velde has passed all probation and psychological tests imposed by the Dutch Volleyball Association (NeVoBo) and the Dutch Olympic Committee and is still being assessed.

The publication reports that the British Olympic Association has “serious concerns” about the decision

The International Olympic Committee, which runs the Olympic Games, said national Olympic committees were responsible for the selection and that it would not intervene.

“The nomination of individual team members after qualification on the field is the sole responsibility of the respective National Olympic Committee. We therefore turn to the Dutch NOC for further information,” it said in a statement. The mirror.

In a NOC statement, van de Velde said: “I understand that this may attract international media attention in the run-up to the biggest sporting event in the world.”

The 29-year-old had previously spoken to Dutch media about the incident and said he “could not undo” what had happened.

“I will have to face the consequences. It was the biggest mistake of my life,” he said.

Van de Velde had already explained to Dutch broadcaster NOS in 2018: “I made this decision when I was not ready. I was a teenager who was still trying to understand things.”

“I was kind of lost and now, apart from my imprisonment, I have so much more life experience.

“Any form of help would have been very, very helpful, maybe I would have said to myself: get help.”