A convicted rapist has been selected to represent the Netherlands in its Olympic team in beach volleyball, sparking outrage over the Dutch Olympic Committee’s (NOC) decision.
Steven van de Velde, 29, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after being convicted of three counts of rape against a child.
In August 2014, van de Velde travelled from Amsterdam to the UK and raped a 12-year-old British girl at an address in Miltion Keynes. He was 19-years-old when he met his victim on Facebook, before arranging the visit. The court heard that van de Velde was aware of the girl’s age and went to her home when her mother was out.
In England, the judge of van de Velde’s rape case had told him: “Prior to coming to this country you were training as a potential Olympian. Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.”
However, after Van de Velde was released from prison in 2017, having served only a quarter of his sentence, he resumed his volleyball career in 2018 and has since represented the Netherlands in multiple international tournaments “following an intensive, professionally supervised trajectory”, according to the NOC.
The committee has also stated that van de Velde met “all qualification criteria” to make the Olympic team, despite his previous conviction.
Van de Velde will represent the Netherlands in beach volleyball alongside his partner Matthew Immers in Paris next month.
Each Paris Olympian is required to sign an Athletes’ Rights and Responsibilities Declaration, which includes a requirement that they “act as a role model.”
“I’d love to know how @BeachTeamNL thinks Steven Van der Velde is fulfilling the 7th Olympian requirement,” writes Plaintiff Lawyer Dr Ann Olivarius on platform X.
“A tale as old as time: rapist with a sporting talent given a free pass so he can continue his professional career,” writes domestic abuse advocate David Challen on platform X.
In a 2018 interview with Dutch broadcaster NOS, van de Velde said: “I made that choice in my life when I wasn’t ready, I was a teenager still figuring things out.”
“I was sort of lost and now I have so much more life experience, aside from just being incarcerated.”
Upon his early release from prison, van de Velde reportedly said: “I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not.”
At the time, the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children commented on his remarks saying: “Van de Velde’s lack of remorse and self-pity is breathtaking and we can only begin to imagine how distressed his victim must feel if she sees his comments.”
“Grooming can leave a child feeling ashamed or even guilty because they believe they have somehow willingly participated when, in fact, an adult has preyed upon them in order to sexually exploit them.”