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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
Nationality Netherlands
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
Conviction(s)Rape (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: [ˈsteːvən vɑn də ˈvɛldə] ; born 8 August 1994) is a Dutch beach volleyball player. He was convicted of child rape in 2016; in 2014, while van de Velde was 19, he raped a 12 year-old girl after he gave her alcohol.[1][2] He has qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics, with the Dutch Olympic Committee standing by their nomination.[3]

Volleyball career

Van de Velde won the Under-20 Dutch National Championships in 2011.[4] With partner Michiel van Dorsten he represented the Netherlands at the 2015 European Games. Together with partner Dirk Boehlé, he finished third at the Blooming Beach Aalsmeer of the 2018 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.[5]

In June 2024 van de Velde qualified to play Beach Volleyball on behalf of the Netherlands Olympic Team. 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 also apologized for the psychological effect of van de Velde's nomination on sexual assault victims, claiming they did not expect it to attract as much attention.[6]

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. The Independent reported that when names were announced before the match began, van de Velde was booed and Immers was cheered.[7] The BBC reported that van de Velde was booed by some sections of the crowd and applauded by others.[8] Global News reported that while Immers was cheered by all and van de Velde was loudly booed, some Dutch fans gave their applause.[9] After the first game, Dutch Olympic committee press attaché John van Vliet addressed remarks about van de Velde's criminal record and protecting a child rapist: "We are protecting a convicted child rapist, yes. [...] To do his sport as best as possible, at a tournament he qualified for."[10] Both Immers and van de Velde were booed more frequently in the match they won against Chile. Immers said that "I was disappointed with the crowd, for sure" and that "I cannot do anything about his past anymore. I’m here to play with him [...] But I think mentally we’re really strong, and I’m really strong to get through this, together. And we’re going to do that."[11]

Child rape

In 2014, van de Velde, aged 19 at the time, corresponded with a 12-year-old girl who sent him a friend request on Facebook. He said he believed the girl was 16 at the time they began to communicate, but he continued despite her telling him her age. In August 2014, he travelled to her home town, Milton Keynes in England, gave her alcohol and raped her near the local Furzton Lake.[12] 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.[13] There were further two instances of rape the next day.[12] During one of the three rapes, the victim told van de Velde that he was hurting her.[14]

Van de Velde returned to the Netherlands after the rapes[15] and told his victim to go to a sexual health clinic for contraception, at which point her age alerted concern among the staff.[14] He was extradited to the United Kingdom and arrested in January 2016.[15] The victim expressed feelings of guilt and had been self-harming and once overdosed, facts that caused the judge to "give van de Velde a scathing rebuke" during the case.[14][16]

Sentencing and release

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.[17] During his sentencing remarks, the judge stated, "Your hopes of representing your country [as an Olympic athlete] now lie as a shattered dream" and "He [Van de Velde] has lost a stellar sports career being branded a rapist. Plainly it is a career end for him".[18]

Under a treaty between the Netherlands and the UK, van de Velde was transferred to the Netherlands to serve his sentence. Because the legal definition of rape differs between the countries and de Velde would have been unlikely to have been convicted of rape in the Netherlands, the rape conviction was at that time substituted for a lesser offence of ontucht ("sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms") under Dutch law, and the sentence was adjusted accordingly.[19][20] After serving 13 months of his original four year sentence, he was released from prison.[15]

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, without expanding further.[1][21] At the same time he stated not yet having read any of the reporting he was criticizing.[22] 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".[15]

Return to sport

Van de Velde returned to international competition in 2018. He excused himself in an interview, saying about the rapes that occurred when he was 19-years-old, 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".[23] He has since described it as "the biggest mistake of [his] life".[24]

The Dutch Volleyball Association allowed him to resume his career as a beach volleyball player. In 2024, he was controversially selected to represent the Netherlands in the 2024 Summer Olympics.[25] However, 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.[26] An online petition calling for his removal from the Olympics had 100,000 supporters.[27]

Personal life

He is married to Kim van de Velde [de] (née Behrens), a German volleyball player who studied psychology and trained to become a police officer.[28][29] They have one child.[30] His brother-in-law is footballer Kevin Behrens, who plays for VfL Wolfsburg and the Germany national football team.[31]

References

  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 pagr 12
  5. ^ Blooming Beach Aalsmeer | Men - Main draw Archived 2024-06-26 at the Wayback Machine, FIVB.org
  6. ^ "Dutch volleyball player convicted of raping a child won't stay in Paris Olympic Village | NL Times". nltimes.nl. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  7. ^ "Olympics crowd boos convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde at beach volleyball". The Independent. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  8. ^ "Convicted rapist Van de Velde booed on Olympic debut". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  9. ^ Mannie, Kathryn. "Crowd loudly boos convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde at Olympics". Global News. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ Golen, Jimmy. "Dutch beach volleyball player convicted of rape is booed again, louder, in second match of Olympics". Associated Press. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ a b c "Steven van de Velde case, explained: Why Dutch volleyball player and convicted rapist is in 2024 Olympics | Sporting News". www.sportingnews.com. 28 July 2024. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ "Netherlands rapist of girl, 12, to compete at 2024 Paris Olympics". The Australian. 26 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
  17. ^ "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.
  18. ^ "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.
  19. ^ "Support for Steven van de Velde, who realizes past cannot be erased". volleybal.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Brown, Oliver (25 June 2024). "Dutch volleyball player who raped 12-year-old British girl qualifies for Paris Olympics". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ "Convicted child rapist picked for Olympics team". Nine. 27 June 2024. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ "Dutch Olympic organizers stand by qualification of athlete convicted of rape". TODAY.com. 29 June 2024. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  26. ^ "Convicted rapist 'isolated' from teammates, banned from village amid storm: Olympic Daily". Fox Sports. 22 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  27. ^ Cleal, Olivia. "'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.
  28. ^ Klingovsky, Jochen (30 June 2023). "Beachvolleyballerin Kim van de Velde: Bikinihosen bessern das Budget auf". Stuttgarter Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  29. ^ 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.
  30. ^ 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.
  31. ^ 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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