Volleyball player convicted of rape set for Olympics - A beach volleyball player who was jailed for raping a 12-year-old British girl is set to represent the Netherlands at the Paris Olympics.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/c511yz5ze18o

A beach volleyball player who was jailed for raping a 12-year-old British girl is set to represent the Netherlands at the Paris Olympics.

Steven van de Velde, now 29, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after admitting three counts of rape against a child, which took place in August 2014.

Van de Velde, who met his victim on Facebook, travelled from Amsterdam to the UK and raped the girl at an address in Milton Keynes.

He was allowed to serve his sentence in the Netherlands but was released after just 12 months.

Van de Velde subsequently resumed his volleyball career and has competed in international tournaments since 2018 "following an intensive, professionally supervised trajectory" the Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC) said.

He has qualified for the Olympics in his national pair with partner Matthew Immers.

The Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC) told BBC Sport: "After his release, Van de Velde sought and received professional counselling. He demonstrated to those around him - privately and professionally - self-insight and reflection."

The NOC says Van de Velde's return to the sport met guidelines set by the Dutch Volleyball Federation (NeVoBo) in the organisation's "Guidelines Integrity Record", which sets out conditions for athletes to resume competing after conviction.

It says he has met "all qualification criteria for the Olympic Games".

In interviews with Dutch media previously Van de Velde said: "I can't reverse it, so will have to bear the consequences. It has been the biggest mistake of my life."

In a statement provided by the NOC, Van de Velde said: "In 2016 and afterwards, several Dutch media also paid attention to the story. I understand that in the run-up to the biggest sporting event in the world, this can attract the attention of international media."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Dutch Volleyball Federation and the International Volleyball Federation have been contacted for comment.

He confessed to drugging and raping a 12-year-old girl. He was convicted in England for four years and then extradited back to the Netherlands, where they released him pretty much straight away and put him on the volleyball team.

He feels absolutely no remorse whatsoever and claims that he has been unfairly victimized.

Oh, and the Netherlands also has a law that makes it illegal to be mean to pedophiles after they've served their sentence. Yes, really.

 

[Colon capital V]

How good of a player is this guy? Because realistically the only reason he's not nailed to a pike and burned alive right now (besides eurocuck laws) is that he's a person of interest in a Volleyball team. Is he a really good player and/or does he help bring the Shalom that sweet green for views?

 

[Squawking Macaw]

I can tell you as a Europoor that our laws really are this soft. It's not just a matter of protecting the pet rapefugees, actual white Europeans also do this shit all the time and they rarely see the inside of a jail cell. It's not at all rare for me to read the news and find an article where some guy stabs/beats/rapes someone, is apprehended, but is later released for no reason. Even when criminals are convicted, they serve extremely low sentences (in my country, the maximum sentence for murder is 16 years), and are often released before serving half of it.
Being as soft on crime as we are emboldens the worst of society, native and foreigner alike.

Because they can't fit all the criminals. They don't build new prisons because they need to be held at a higher comfort standard than educational institutions. That's the practical stand point.

This sounds like something out of a dystopian movie but it's true. Any attempt not to treat criminals like royalty is decried as a human rights violation, and it's gotten to the point where they're treated better than schoolchildren. Schools are more run down (and some still have asbestos roofing, I've been to one of those myself) and their food is also much more vile. Meanwhile there are even prisons that allow inmates to play videogames.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Maybe rape helped his chances of selection? He's used to getting a ball in a tight space, in the hope of coming first, before it get's thrown back in his face.

 

[Miquella]

Because all the Europeans with balls left and live in the United states or died in the trenches of both world wars

only retarded euros go to the US get a grip state of that shit country
imagine having to pay for a fucking ambulance or getting bankrupt because you had a baby in hospital dumb burgers

 

[Ignatius von Cistern]

volleyball is not a real sport, which is why we have women's beach volleyball to make it look fun.

 

[TheySeeMeRowlin]

Considering that Canada wants to make hate speech punishable with life in prison, that statement is sadly becoming less and less of an exaggeration.

It wasn't an exaggeration at all, hence why he could provide zero evidence that it was. Thoughtcrime is the only kind of crime that Europe really cracks down hard on. Whenever it's brought up, Europeans always either defend it or just outright deny it in a desperate attempt at damage control.

 

[Daddy's Angry Juice]

The Olympics, much like rape, is about doing whatever it takes to win, so i support this decision.

 

[Bindo]

What's wrong with Europe?

Most of the governments aren't real, even if elected, they are figureheads and have been controlled by central bankers or other cartels since the end of WWII if not before. It's the same reason most of their heads of state are weird theater kids who go clubbing and don't seem to take their leadership role seriously in any way.

 

[Throng of Titans]

I can tell you as a Europoor that our laws really are this soft.

Reminder that Anders Behring Breivik killed over 70 people and legally could only get a 21 year sentence, in an incredibly cushy prison.

They basically will have to rely on lawfare to keep him locked up any longer than that.

 

[Thiletonomics]

volleyball is not a real sport, which is why we have women's beach volleyball to make it look fun.

It was also the same at one point for Indoor Volleyball, but they decided to throw that out with the change in outfits to just boring shorts.

 

[mister fireworks]

look, if the 12 year old hasnt gotten over the rape by now then she can just get euthanized by the state. They LOVE giving young people, especially women, the opportunity to taker advantage of the right to get a doctor's note to die because of non-physical illness.

 

[Snekposter]

Netherlands is just worse.

There's only two kinds of people I can't stand: those who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.

 

[Iron Jaguar]

A rapist? - He'll fit right into Paris.

 

[keke]

Because realistically the only reason he's not nailed to a pike and burned alive right now (besides eurocuck laws) is that he's a person of interest in a Volleyball team

This is not even close to being the case. Rape is essentially legalised via weak laws and sentencing guidelines entirely in favor of rapists, and all criminals. There is no social consequence, if there was that would be the exception. This is the Netherlands we are talking about.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

He's out. In round one.
Imagine being so desperate to perform well in the Olympics you field an actual child rapist and he cannot win a single match.

https://embed.kiwifarms.st/threads/paris-2024-olympics-shenanigans.196590/post-18955006

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Double post but I'll defend it. Guardian did a coverage of his recent interview with the Dutch broadcaster who9 of course went soft as hell on him..

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/14/dutch-beach-volleyball-player-raped-child-breaks-silence-over-olympics-steven-van-de-velde

The Dutch beach volleyball player Steven van de Velde, who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2016, has said that he considered quitting the Paris Olympics amid the controversy surrounding his participation.

Van de Velde and his beach volleyball partner Matthew Immers reached the quarter-finals in Paris, where they lost to Brazil in straight sets. The pair played four matches in the tournament and Van de Velde was subjected to a stream of boos and whistles.


Asked in an interview with the Dutch national broadcaster NOS if he thought about quitting, Van de Velde said that he considered it before and during the Olympics, but ultimately decided to compete. “I thought: ‘I don’t want that. I’m not going to give others the power to decide they can bully me away or get rid of me,’” he said in Dutch. Van de Velde did not speak to reporters during the Olympics.

He served 13 months in prison after his 2016 rape conviction in England. Although victim advocates, lawmakers and fans called for him to be banned from the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said it was powerless to stop the Netherlands from sending an athlete who qualified in the usual way.

In a statement posted on the website of the Dutch Volleyball Federation before the Olympics Games, Van de Velde said of his past: “I cannot reverse it, so I will have to bear the consequences. It has been the biggest mistake of my life.”

He and Immers finished with a 1-2 record in pool play before losing to the Brazilians in Paris. Van de Velde said his and Immers’s play may have been affected by the crowd reactions.

“There is certainly a very good chance that it has had an influence on our game,” he told NOS. “If I think about how much I was focused on peripheral matters – with how I want to be on the field instead of with tactics against the opponent – then you can say that that has had an influence, but there is no point in passing the buck.”


Van de Velde said he understood the contention. “Do you want somebody with a history? Can he stand on the podium? That is a legitimate question to ask,” he said. But Van de Velde, who is now married and has a young son, added: “I’m not the person I was 10 years ago.”

He paid tribute to family and friends as well as Dutch volleyball and Olympic authorities for their support. While he faced jeers in Paris, orange-clad fans of the Netherlands gave him their support. “I can’t change what people think of me,” he said. “Someone can hold me responsible for ever for what happened and that’s OK, because that’s what it is. It is their right. So, I accept that.”

 

[pot of sneed]

"Van de Velde said he understood the contention. “Do you want somebody with a history? Can he stand on the podium? That is a legitimate question to ask,” he said. But Van de Velde, who is now married and has a young son, added: “I’m not the person I was 10 years ago.”"

Ten years ago, that's still barely older than the girl he raped. Violently do I hate how soft European 'justice' is when it comes to horrific crimes like this, and so many comments were all "Hurr durr, she consented!" like fuck you, 12 year olds cannot consent regardless of what paedophiles and tranny groomers say. May their ends be brutal and slow.