A convicted child rapist volleyball star shamelessly wept as he spoke about being booed at the Olympics amid a huge storm about his participation.
Steven Van de Velde, 30, who served just one year of a four-year sentence for raping a 12-year-old British girl, was speaking for the first time since his controversial participation in the Paris’ Games.
The Dutch athlete was found guilty of three counts of raping the child in Milton Keynes in 2014 but was selected because he was granted early release from prison and judged by national selectors to have paid his dues.
He told the newspaper: ‘I definitely thought about it, yes. I did something wrong, ten years ago. I have to accept that.
‘But hurting people around me – whether it’s Matthew [his volleyball partner], my wife, my childā¦ that just goes too far for me.
‘That’s definitely a moment where I thought, is this worth it?’
Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to raping a 12-year year-old British girl in August 2014 when he was 19.
The Dutchman had travelled from Amsterdam to the UK and raped the girl at a house in Milton Keynes.
Despite being told by a judge that his conviction was ‘career ending’, van de Velde resumed his volleyball career after serving just 12 months of his four year sentence.
Van de Velde has successfully rebuilt his life since leaving prison to the extent that he is now married to a high profile fellow volleyball pro Kim Behrens from Germany. The pair married in 2022 and have a young son together.
Behrens, a police officer as well as an athlete, dotes on her 6′ 6′ tall husband and regularly posts loved-up content on social media about their lives together.
Although victims advocates, lawmakers and fans have called for van de Velde to be banned from the Olympics, the IOC has said it was powerless to stop the Netherlands from sending an athlete who qualified in the usual way.
However, he was not staying with other athletes in Olympic village after the British Olympic Association aired concerns over the matter with the IOC.
Dutch Olympic selectors supported Van de Velde’s inclusion in their team and previously explained he had met all the criteria needed to appear at the Games in France’s capital.
‘Since 2018, Steven van de Velde has been participating in international beach volleyball tournaments again following an intensive, professionally supervised trajectory,’ a spokesperson told Mail Sport.
‘Meanwhile, Steven van de Velde has met all qualification criteria for the Olympic Games and is therefore included in the group of athletes who formally passed over on July 4 from the Dutch national federations to NOC, who then becomes responsible for them during the Olympic Games.’
Dutch officials also provided van de Velde with special treatment whilst he competed in Paris, preventing him from speaking to reporters – something typically required of all Olympians – and whisking him away from games surrounded by three body guards.
DOC press attachĆ© John Van Vliert said: ‘Two of the measures we took was we have Steven sleeping outside the [Athletes] village, the second one was we don’t gonna do [media] questions in the mix zones.
‘We are protecting a convicted child rapist [so that he can] do his sport as best as possible for the tournament which he qualified for.’
A Paris 2024 official added: ‘Van de Velde was taken away with three body guards. Normally everyone comes through the mixed zone.
‘But he didn’t come through to avoid any media violence.
‘We aren’t happy with that, but the decision was made at the top of the IOC [International Olympic Committee].’
Van de Veldeās partner Immers, 23, also defended his team-mate during the tournament, saying: ‘He’s had his punishment. And now he’s really kind.’
The Dutch pair qualified for the tournament at the Eiffel Tower Stadium ranked 11th in the world and qualified from their group despite losing their opening game to Italy.
Speaking after their first match at the Paris Games on July 28, Immers was asked if van de Velde had ever expressed any remorse to him for rape, to which he replied: ‘No, he doesn’t, he doesn’t explain it.’
The duo then defeated Chile and Norway to set up a round of 16 tie against Brazil, which they lost in straight sets.
The controversy around van de Velde’s selection generated a lot of discussion during the games.
A petition calling on Olympic chiefs to kick van de Velde out the Games gained more than 94,400 signatures, and the British Olympic Association expressed its anger about his competing.
In a statement, the Netherlands Olympic Committee said it was ‘implementing concrete measures to ensure a safe sporting environment for all participants.’
‘These measures include, at the request of van De Velde, alternative accommodation for van De Velde and no media contact during his stay in Paris,’ a spokesman said.
He claimed that the measures were in line with ‘standard practice’ and had been developed following a ‘thorough risk assessment taking into account all affected groups’.
The spokesman said the assessment had reinforced the committee’s ‘confidence in the safety of all parties involved’.
During his trial just less than a decade ago, Aylesbury Crown Court heard how van de Velde had travelled to the UK and met up with his victim and had sex with her.
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,’ Ms Beck said.
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.
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.
Before he returned to the Netherlands van de Velde advised her to get the morning after pill as they had not used contraception. It was her visit to a family planning clinic that alerted the authorities, who stepped in because of the girl’s young age.
The sportsman, of Westeinde 46, Voorburg, the Netherlands, was extradited to the UK on January 8, when he was arrested on suspicion of the sex acts. He later admitted three counts of rape against a child.
Linda Strudwick, defending, insisted it had been a ‘spur of the momedernt decision’ to fly to England and said van de Velde was not a ‘predatory young man.’
Aylesbury Crown Court heard that his victim had later self-harmed after the trauma of her encounter with him.
Judge Francis Sheridan even told van de Velde at the time: ‘Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.’
And his own defence counsel, Linda Strudwick, also said: ‘He’s lost a stellar sporting career and he’s being branded a rapist. It’s plainly a career end for him.’
However van de Velde, sentenced to four years in prison, was transferred from the UK back to the Netherlands to serve the remainder under a treaty between the two countries.
The treaty allowed for his charges and sentence to be adjusted in line with Dutch law, meaning the charge of rape was changed to ‘fornication’.
Due to the punishment being less harsh for this offence in the Netherlands, it mean van de Velde was eligible for release in 2017, having only served one year of his original sentence.
Following his release, 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 it was quite bad, that I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not.
‘Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it is only fair if they also know my side of the story.’
src: dailymail.co.uk