A sports star who was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl is trying to get permission to enter Australia to play in the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide this month.
Steven Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 but served just 13 months after admitting to three counts of rape against the girl, who he met on Facebook.
He was aware of her age at the time of the offences.
But despite the judge at his trial telling him that his sporting career was a ‘shattered dream’ – and his own lawyer saying he had ‘lost a stellar sports career’ – Van de Velde was selected to compete for the Netherlands at the Paris Olympics last year.
A quick visit to the Volleyball World website shows the 31-year-old is listed as a competitor for the World Championships, which begin on November 14.
Van de Velde’s inclusion in the Olympics made sports fans furious, and so has the news that he is listed to compete in Adelaide.
Steven Van de Velde is pictured competing at the Paris Olympics last year after serving 13 months in jail for raping a 12-year-old girl
The 31-year-old’s inclusion in the Dutch team for the Games dismayed sports fans, who heckled him at every opportunity
Van de Velde broke down in tears (pictured) after the Olympics as he complained about being booed by the crowd
‘Shame on all the governing bodies who are allowing this,’ one wrote on Instagram.
‘This is absolutely horrific!’ added another.
‘A basic level of humanity, of what is right and wrong, could have saved everyone this astoundingly absurd decision. Nothing could make this make sense to me,’ wrote a third.
Officials from the Department of Home Affairs are now in the process of deciding whether Van de Velde meets the character requirements for a visa to enter Australia.
He could fail to meet the standards if it is decided he has a substantial criminal record, or on the basis that he has been found guilty of a sexually based crime against someone under the age of 18.
The Daily Mail has contacted the department for comment.
A Volleyball Australia (VA) spokesperson said the governing body is not involved in deciding the eligibility of competitors, which is the responsibility of the International Volleyball Federation.
During his trial, Aylesbury Crown Court heard how Van de Velde had travelled to the UK and met up with his victim and had sex with her.
Once ranked as high as 11th in the world, the Dutchman insisted he is not a paedophile when he was released from jail in 2017
Van de Velde branded media reports of his crimes ‘nonsense’ before admitting he hadn’t read any of them
Sandra Beck, prosecuting, told the court at the time: ‘She describes that she had met Steven Van de Velde on Facebook, they spoke regularly through that and he made her “feel special”.
‘She certainly made it clear she was seven years younger than him. This relationship over social media was taking place over a period of time.’
The volleyball player’s victim had added him as a friend on Facebook after he commented favourably on one of her photos, the court heard.
They began to speak on a daily basis over Facebook, Snapchat and Skype before he arranged to visit her, arriving in Milton Keynes in August 2014.
The schoolgirl told her family she was staying with a friend and snuck out to try and book a hotel with the older teenager, aged 19 at the time.
When they couldn’t find a room, they went to Furzton Lake in the town, where they drank Baileys and she performed a sex act on him.
The following day, after the pair slept in cardboard boxes under a stairway at Premier Inn, having again been unable to book a room, she took him to her empty house and he took her virginity.
After serving part of his sentence in Britain, Van de Velde was transferred to the Netherlands and his sentence was adjusted to the norms of Dutch law, resulting in his release from jail in 2017.
He started competing again that year, and lashed out at being branded a paedophile.
‘I do want to correct all the nonsense that has been written about me when I was locked up,’ he said.
‘I did not read any of it, on purpose, but I understand that it was quite bad, that I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile.
‘That I am not – really not.’
After being cleared to play by the Dutch Volleyball Association, Van de Velde returned to international competition in 2018 and went on to play in world cups and European championships.
Now the married father of a boy, he was given the green light to compete in Paris with his teammate Matthew Immers, who were ranked 11th in the world at the time.
The Department of Home Affairs can refuse the beach volleyballer entry into Australia on the grounds of character
‘Shame on all the governing bodies who are allowing this,’ one Aussie sports fan said of Van de Velde’s attempt to play in Adelaide
Women’s advocacy groups were dismayed by the move, and the Dutch Olympic Committee’s decision to shift Van de Velde out of the athletes’ village and ban him from talking to the media.
‘He’s not going to downplay it (his conviction). We have to respect that and help him as a member of the team to be able to perform,’ Dutch chef de mission Pieter van den Hoogenband said.
Van de Velde was booed by spectators throughout the Games, where he and Immers reached the quarter-finals.
He broke down in tears in an interview after the Olympics as he admitted to thinking about not representing his country in Paris.
‘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.’
Asked about the heckling by the crowd, he said, ‘There is certainly a very good chance that it has had an influence on our game.
‘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 has had an influence.
‘I can’t change what people think of me.
‘Someone can hold me responsible forever for what happened and that’s OK, because that’s what it is. It is their right, so I accept that.
‘I’m not the person I was 10 years ago.’
