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Steven van de Velde

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In this Dutch name, the surname is van de Velde, not Velde.
Steven van de Velde
Van de Velde in 2020
Personal information
Born (1994-08-08) 8 August 1994 (age 30)
The Hague, Netherlands
Height6 ft 6 in (1.99 m)
Beach volleyball information
Teammate
2011–2012 Jeffery van Wijk
2013 Daan Spijkers
2013–2015 Michiel van Dorsten
2015–2018 Dirk Boehlé
2019–2022 Christiaan Varenhorst
2023–2024 Matthew Immers
Honours
Representing  Netherlands
Beach volleyball
European Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2024 Netherlands Men's
Conviction(s)Rape of a child under 13 (3 counts)
Criminal penaltyFour years in prison
Capture status
Released on licence after serving 13 months
Details
Victims12-year-old girl
Date2 August 2014

Steven van de Velde (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈsteːvə(ɱ) vɑn də ˈvɛldə]; born 8 August 1994) is a Dutch beach volleyball player. He was convicted of child rape in 2016; in 2014, when Van de Velde was 19, he raped a 12 year-old British girl, whom he had made contact with via social media, after he traveled to Britain to meet her and gave her alcohol.[1][2] He participated in the 2024 Summer Olympics, with the Dutch Olympic Committee standing by their nomination despite a petition calling for him to be removed.[3]

Early volleyball career

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Van de Velde won the Under-20 Dutch National Championships in 2011.[4][full citation needed] With Michiel van Dorsten, he represented the Netherlands at the 2015 European Games.

Child rape

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In 2014, Van de Velde, aged 19, met with a 12-year-old girl who sent him a friend request on Facebook. In August 2014, aware of her age, he travelled to her home town, Milton Keynes, gave her alcohol and raped her.[5] That same night, Van de Velde tried to stay at a hotel with his victim but was denied a room, so they slept under a staircase.[6] Van de Velde raped the victim twice the next day.[5] During one of the three rapes, the victim told Van de Velde that he was hurting her.[7]

Van de Velde returned to the Netherlands after the rapes[8] and told his victim to go to a sexual health clinic for emergency contraception.[7] He was extradited to the United Kingdom and arrested in January 2016.[8]

Sentencing and release

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In March 2016, Van de Velde pleaded guilty at Aylesbury Crown Court to three counts of child rape, specifically the charge of rape of a child under the age of 13. The judge sentenced Van de Velde to four years' imprisonment and placed him on the UK sex offender registry, where his name remains.[9] During his sentencing remarks, the judge said, "Your hopes of representing your country [as an Olympic athlete] now lie as a shattered dream" and "he has lost a stellar sports career being branded a rapist. Plainly it is a career end for him".[10]

Under a treaty between the Netherlands and UK, Van de Velde was transferred to the Netherlands to serve his sentence. The sentence was adjusted in line with Dutch law, and the charge of rape was substituted for one referring to ontucht ("sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms").[11][12] After serving 13 months of his original four year sentence, he was released from prison.[8] Until 1 July 2024, Dutch law only recognised rape if force was involved.[13]

After his release in 2017, Van de Velde complained about "all the nonsense" reporting on his crime in the media, claiming that the term pedophile did not apply to him.[1] He also said he had not read the reporting he was criticizing.[14] The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in Britain condemned his comments at the time, stating that his "lack of remorse and self-pity is breathtaking".[8] He later claimed that he "made that choice in my life when I wasn't ready, I was a teenager still figuring things out. I was sort of lost".[15] He has described it as "the biggest mistake of my life".[16] His later participation in the Olympics was criticized by The Survivors Trust as a "further endorsement of the shocking toleration [as a society that] we have of child sexual abuse".[6]

Return to sport

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The Dutch Volleyball Association allowed Van de Velde to resume his career as a beach volleyball player, and he returned to international competition in 2018. With Dirk Boehlé, he finished third at the Blooming Beach Aalsmeer of the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.[17]

2024 Summer Olympics

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Van de Velde and Matthew Immers playing against Italy at the 2024 Summer Olympics

In June 2024, Van de Velde qualified to play beach volleyball on behalf of the Netherlands Olympic Team.[18] In order to "establish calm", the Dutch Olympic Committee isolated Van de Velde from the rest of the Dutch team, and barred him from talking to media.[19] An online petition calling for his removal from the Olympics had over 100,000 supporters.[20] After his first match at the Olympics, Dutch Olympic committee press secretary John van Vliet said: "We are protecting a convicted child rapist, yes ... To do his sport as best as possible, at a tournament he qualified for."[21] NOC*NSF, the Dutch National Olympic Committee, decided to neither house him with the other athletes at the Olympic Village, nor to allow him to speak to journalists. The Committee apologized for the psychological effect of Van de Velde's nomination on sexual assault victims, saying they did not expect it to attract so much attention.[22]

Van de Velde made his Olympic debut at Paris 2024 alongside partner Matthew Immers on 28 July 2024, losing the match against Italy's Alex Ranghieri and Adrian Carambula by two sets to one.[23] Van de Velde was booed when his name was announced, as well as during the match, while Immers was cheered, and some fans applauded for Van de Velde.[23][24][25] Both Immers and Van de Velde were booed more frequently during the match they won against Marco and Esteban Grimalt of Chile, with Immers saying that he was disappointed in the crowd.[26] Immers later said that he understood the commotion, but that he was also surprised since they had been playing together for two years.[27][28][29] This was the only match the pair won at the Olympics; after losing two of three group matches, they advanced to the round of 16, where they played Brazilian pair Evandro Oliveira and Arthur Lanci. Van de Velde and Immers were beaten in straight sets by the Brazilians and were eliminated from the Olympics.[30][31]

2024 European Volleyball Championships

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Two weeks after the Olympics, Immers and Van de Velde won a bronze medal at the 2024 European Beach Volleyball Championships in the Netherlands.[32]

Personal life

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Van de Velde is married to Kim van de Velde [de] (née Behrens), a German volleyball player who studied psychology and trained to become a police officer.[33][34] They have one child.[35] His brother-in-law is footballer Kevin Behrens, who plays for VfL Wolfsburg and the Germany national football team.[36]

References

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  1. ^ a b Brown, Oliver (25 June 2024). "Dutch volleyball player who raped 12-year-old British girl qualifies for Paris Olympics". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
  2. ^ Kutz, Anna (20 July 2024). "Dutch athlete convicted of child rape won't stay in Olympic Village". NewsNation. Archived from the original on 27 July 2024. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Volleyball player convicted of rape set for Olympics". BBC News. 26 June 2024. Archived from the original on 26 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
  4. ^ Voorburg, 10 August 2011 page 12
  5. ^ a b "Dutch beach volleyball star given four-year jail term for rape". Bucks Herald. 22 March 2016. Archived from the original on 26 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
  6. ^ a b Burrows, Tom. "Steven van de Velde raped a 12-year-old a decade ago. Now, he's at the Olympics". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Steven van de Velde case, explained: Why Dutch volleyball player and convicted rapist is in 2024 Olympics". Sporting News. 28 July 2024. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d "Rapist Steven Van de Velde's remarks condemned by NSPCC". BBC News. 17 March 2017. Archived from the original on 26 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
  9. ^ "Dutch volleyball player jailed for raping girl, 12, he met on Facebook". BBC News. 21 March 2016. Archived from the original on 27 June 2024. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  10. ^ "Would-be Olympian jailed after flying 400 miles to rape a 12-year-old girl in Milton Keynes". miltonkeynes.co.uk. 21 March 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
  11. ^ "Support for Steven van de Velde, who realizes past cannot be erased". volleybal.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  12. ^ Zee, Renate van der (30 July 2024). "Why the Netherlands seems unfazed by sending a convicted child rapist to the Olympics". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  13. ^ < "New act to address sexual offences enters into force on July 1, 2024". Government of the Netherlands. 20 March 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  14. ^ Smith, By Alan (23 July 2024). "Olympian guilty of raping British girl, 12, to get special protection in Paris". The Mirror. Archived from the original on 24 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  15. ^ "Convicted child rapist picked for Olympics team". Nine. 27 June 2024. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  16. ^ Brown, Oliver (27 June 2024). "Dutch Olympics committee defends selection of volleyball player who raped 12-year-old British girl". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  17. ^ Blooming Beach Aalsmeer | Men - Main draw Archived 2024-06-26 at the Wayback Machine, FIVB.org
  18. ^ "Dutch Olympic organizers stand by qualification of athlete convicted of rape". TODAY.com. 29 June 2024. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  19. ^ "Convicted rapist 'isolated' from teammates, banned from village amid storm: Olympic Daily". Fox Sports. 22 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  20. ^ Cleal, Olivia (29 July 2024). "'Stop this guy': More than 100,000 sign online petition to disqualify convicted child rapist from Olympic games". Women's Agenda. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
  21. ^ Brown, Oliver (28 July 2024). "Dutch admit 'we are protecting a convicted child rapist, yes' at Paris Olympics". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  22. ^ "Dutch volleyball player convicted of raping a child won't stay in Paris Olympic Village | NL Times". nltimes.nl. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  23. ^ a b "Olympics crowd boos convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde at beach volleyball". The Independent. 28 July 2024. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  24. ^ "Convicted rapist Van de Velde booed on Olympic debut". BBC Sport. 28 July 2024. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  25. ^ Mannie, Kathryn. "Crowd loudly boos convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde at Olympics". Global News. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  26. ^ Golen, Jimmy (31 July 2024). "Dutch beach volleyball player convicted of rape is booed again, louder, in second match of Olympics". Associated Press. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  27. ^ "Van den Hoogenband verbaasd over ophef Van de Velde: 'Zaken uitvergroot rond Spelen'". nos.nl (in Dutch). 21 July 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  28. ^ "Teamgenoot Van de Velde over ophef: 'Jammer dat het gebeurt'". RTL.nl (in Dutch). 28 July 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  29. ^ "Immers baalt van publiek dat Van de Velde uitfloot: 'Erger dan in eerste wedstrijd'". nu.nl (in Dutch). 31 July 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  30. ^ "Convicted rapist Van de Velde out of Olympics after loss". BBC Sport. 4 August 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  31. ^ "Steven van de Velde, the Dutch beach volleyball player convicted of rape, eliminated from Olympics". APNews. 4 August 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  32. ^ "Beachvolleyballers Van de Velde en Immers pakken EK-brons in Scheveningen". nos.nl (in Dutch). 18 August 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  33. ^ Klingovsky, Jochen (30 June 2023). "Beachvolleyballerin Kim van de Velde: Bikinihosen bessern das Budget auf". Stuttgarter Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  34. ^ Ludwig, Mirko (22 July 2013). "Kim Behrens vollführt Spagat zwischen Leistungsport und Dienst". Westfälische Nachrichten (in German). Archived from the original on 8 March 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  35. ^ Dorow, Olaf (15 December 2022). "Beachvolleyball: Das Comeback der Kim van de Velde". Weser Kurier (in German). Archived from the original on 26 June 2024. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  36. ^ Hofmann, Tina (26 June 2024). "Aufruhr vor den Olympischen Spielen: Verurteilter Vergewaltiger fährt nach Paris". TAG24 (in German). Retrieved 27 June 2024.
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