A Dutch volleyball player who was jailed for raping a 12-year-old girl has qualified to compete at the Paris Olympics next month.
Steven van de Velde was 19 when he flew from the Netherlands to the UK to meet the schoolgirl in August 2014, after the pair began chatting on Facebook before taking her virginity.
The athlete, who knew the girl was young at the time, was sentenced in March 2016 to four years in prison after admitting to three counts of rape.
But despite Van de Velde being told by the judge at the time that his promising career was a “shattered dream”, the volleyball player is ready to return to the spotlight after sealing his place at the Paris Games in July.
The 29-year-old has qualified in the national pairing with teammate Matthew Immers, which is now ranked No. 11 in the world, according to The Telegraph.
Dutch volleyball player Steven van de Velde (pictured), who was jailed for raping a 12-year-old girl, has qualified to compete at the Paris Olympics next month.
Van de Velde was 19 when he flew from the Netherlands to the UK to meet the schoolgirl in August 2014. The athlete is seen celebrating at the World Beach Championships in 2023.
Van de Velde photographed during the qualifying final for the 2020 German Championship
During his trial just under a decade ago, Aylesbury Crown Court heard how van de Velde had traveled to the UK and met his victim and had sex with her.
Sandra Beck, prosecuting, told the court at the time: “She describes meeting Steven Van de Velde on Facebook, they spoke regularly through there and he made her ‘feel special’.”
“She made it clear that she was seven years younger than him. This relationship over social media developed over a period of time.”
The volleyball player’s victim had added him as a friend on Facebook after he commented favorably on one of her photos, the court heard.
They began speaking daily via Facebook, Snapchat and Skype before he arranged to visit her and arrived in Milton Keynes in August 2014.
The schoolgirl told her family she was staying with a friend and ran away to try to book a hotel with the older teenager, who was 19 at the time.
When they couldn’t find a room, they went to Lake Furzton in the town, where they drank Baileys and she performed a sex act on him.
The next day, after the couple slept in cardboard boxes under a staircase at the Premier Inn, unable to book a room again, she took him to her empty house and he took her virginity.
Van de Velde celebrates during a match on day 6 of the 2023 World Beach Championships
Before returning to the Netherlands, Van de Velde advised her to take the morning-after pill, as they had not used contraception. It was her visit to her family planning clinic that alerted the authorities, who intervened due to the girl’s young age.
The athlete, of Westeinde 46, Voorburg, Netherlands, was extradited to the UK on January 8, when he was arrested on suspicion of sexual acts. He subsequently admitted three counts of rape against a child.
Van de Velde was released from prison in 2017 after serving just one year of his four-year sentence.
Upon his release, he said: “I want to correct all the nonsense that has been written about me when I was locked up.”
“I didn’t read anything on purpose, but I understand that it was quite bad, that they have called me a sexual monster, a pedophile. Which I’m not, not really.
“Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it’s fair that they also know my side of the story.”
