Steven van de Velde will step out in front of 14,000 people this summer to fulfil a career-long ambition. During the Olympic Games, he will take part in the beach volleyball for the Netherlands. The competition will take place in a glamorous setting in the middle of Paris, right in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Advertisement Yet Van de Velde’s inclusion has triggered a backlash, as it has shone a light on his dark and troubling past. The 29-year-old is a convicted child rapist. He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after admitting three counts of rape against a child, which happened in England in August 2014.
Van de Velde, who met his victim through Facebook, travelled from Amsterdam to Luton airport on an easyJet flight and raped the 12-year-old girl at her family home in Milton Keynes, a town 50 miles north-west of London, when her mother was out. He was 19 at the time. He was caught after he advised his victim to get a morning-after pill.
Staff at a family planning clinic alerted the girl’s family because of her young age. They then contacted the police. Van de Velde spent just 13 months in prison for his crimes, 12 of which were served in Britain, before being released in his home country at the start of 2017.
After coming out of jail, he gave an interview to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, where he said: “I do want to correct all the nonsense that has been written about me when I was locked up. I did not read any of it, on purpose, but I understand that i.