Revealed: Dutch volleyball star, 29, at centre of massive row after being picked for the Olympics despite raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2014 is married to glamorous athlete turned police officer from Germany
We can reveal that a convicted child rapist, whose selection for the Dutch volleyball team caused a major scandal in the run-up to the Olympic Games, is married to a glamorous fellow athlete with whom he has a son.
Steven van de Velde, 29, has been selected for the team despite his conviction for raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2014, when he was 19 and she was too young to consent, sparking a row that threatens to overshadow the start of the Games in Paris.
The 29-year-old Dutchman will be heading to the beach on Sunday morning for his first beach volleyball match. The matches will start this weekend in the French capital.
However, his participation in the Dutch team caused a lot of controversy and his own national committee had to take extra security measures. For example, he was not allowed to stay in the Olympic village with most of the other athletes from the country and he was not allowed to give interviews to the media.
Despite his conviction, Van de Velde has successfully built his life since his release from prison. He is now even married to a well-known fellow volleyball pro from Germany.
Steven van de Velde (right) is at the centre of a storm after being selected for the Olympics despite a conviction for raping a child. He is now married to Kim Behrens (left)
Behrens (left), a police officer and athlete, dotes on her 6-foot-4 husband and regularly posts loving content on social media about their life together
Behrens, a glamorous athlete herself, regularly posts photos of her family on social media, including her young son
Kim Behrens and van de Velde married in 2022 and have a son together.
Behrens, a police officer and athlete, is very fond of her 6-foot-4 husband and regularly posts loving content on social media about their life together.
In December 2021, she wrote: “It’s probably time to officially announce it. Steven and I are having our baby in March.”
In January 2022, they decided to ring in the new year by getting married.
Behrens posted a series of wedding photos and wrote: ‘Mr. and Mrs. van de Velde. 01.01.2022 My year couldn’t have started better!’
After the baby was born, she doted on her husband again, writing, “You and me! And now with him! I think I am witnessing pure happiness and love in life!”
He started talking to the girl after liking a photo of her on Facebook.
They began talking daily via Facebook, Snapchat and Skype before he arranged to visit her. They took an EasyJet flight to Luton, arriving in her hometown of Milton Keynes on 2 August 2014.
The girl would later tell detectives that Van de Velde made her feel “special” — and that he knew her real age.
The schoolgirl told her family she would be staying with a friend before meeting him in town.
They tried to book a hotel room, but after much difficulty they instead went to local beauty spot Furzton Lake, where they drank Baileys before sexually assaulting the girl.
They then spent the night under cardboard boxes under a staircase at the Premier Inn.
Van de Velde and Behrens married in January 2022. He was released from prison in 2017, five years before his son was born
Behrens is a police officer in her native Germany and also a professional volleyball player
The next morning, when her family was gone, she took him to her family’s house, where he raped her in her sister’s bedroom.
He was not using any contraception and advised her to take the morning-after pill.
Her visit to a family planning clinic alerted the authorities, who were called in because the girl was only 13 years old.
A European arrest warrant was issued for him on charges of child abuse, otherwise he would have trained with the 2016 Olympic team.
The athlete was extradited to the UK and when the case came to court two years later, he confessed to three counts of rape of a child.
Linda Strudwick, defending her, insisted it had been a “hasty decision” to fly to England and said Van de Velde was not a “predatory young man”.
Aylesbury Crown Court heard his victim later self-harmed following the traumatic contact with him.
Judge Francis Sheridan even told Van de Velde at the time: ‘Your hope of representing your country is now a shattered dream.’
Professional volleyball player Van de Velde spent only one year in prison despite pleading guilty to three counts of child rape
And his own defense attorney, Linda Strudwick, also said: “He’s lost a great sports career and he’s been branded a rapist. It’s clearly the end of his career.”
However, Van de Velde, sentenced to four years in prison, was transferred back to the Netherlands from the United Kingdom to serve the remainder of his sentence, under a treaty between the two countries.
The treaty allowed his charges and sentence to be amended to conform with Dutch law, changing the charge from rape to fornication. This meant he was eligible for release in 2017, having served just one year of his original sentence.
Van de Velde said a year later: ‘I can’t undo it anymore, so I’ll have to bear the consequences. It was the biggest mistake of my life.’
The NSPCC condemned the decision at the time, saying his “lack of remorse and self-pity is breathtaking”.
As if to confirm this opinion, Van de Velde was quoted shortly after his release as saying: ‘I have been branded as a sex monster, as a pedophile. I am not, really not.’
After his release, the Dutch Volleyball Association allowed him to continue his career as a beach volleyball player, culminating in the decision to let him go to Paris.
Vans de Velde’s German brother-in-law, Kevin Behrens, is also a sports star. He plays football for leading Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg and played for the German national team.