Dutch volleyball player who was jailed for raping a 12-year-old British girl after meeting her on Facebook qualifies to compete in the Paris Olympics
A Dutch volleyball player jailed for raping a 12-year-old girl has qualified to compete in next month’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Steven van de Velde was 19 when he flew from the Netherlands to Britain in August 2014 to meet the schoolgirl after the pair began chatting on Facebook before deflowering her.
The athlete, who knew how young the girl was at the time, was sentenced to four years in prison in March 2016 after admitting three counts of rape.
But despite the judge telling Van de Velde at the time that his promising career was a ‘shattered dream’, the volleyball player will return to the spotlight after securing his place at the Paris Games in July.
The 29-year-old has qualified in the national pair with his partner Matthew Immers, who are now ranked 11th 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 in the Paris Olympics next month
Van de Velde was 19 when he flew from the Netherlands to Britain in August 2014 to meet the schoolgirl. The sportsman can be seen during the Beach World Champs in 2023.
Van de Velde in the photo during the final of the qualification for the German championships in 2020
At his trial just under a decade ago, Aylesbury Crown Court heard how Van de Velde had traveled to Britain, met his victim and had sex with her.
Prosecutor Sandra Beck told the court at the time: ‘She describes that she met Steven Van de Velde on Facebook, they spoke regularly and he made her feel ‘special’.
“She certainly made it clear that she was seven years younger than him. This social media relationship took place over a period of time.”
The volleyball player’s victim had added him as a friend on Facebook after he commented positively on one of her photos, the court heard.
They started talking 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 was going to try to book a hotel with the older teenager, who was 19 years old at the time.
When they couldn’t find a room, they went to Furzton Lake in the city, 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 because they were once again unable to book a room, she took him to her empty house and he took her virginity.
Van de Velde celebrates during a competition on day 6 of the Beach World Champs in 2023
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 a family planning clinic that alerted the authorities, who intervened due to the girl’s young age.
The sportsman, from Westeinde 46, Voorburg, Netherlands, was extradited to Britain on January 8 when he was arrested on suspicion of sexual acts. He later admitted three counts of rape of a child.
Van de Velde was released in 2017 after serving just one year of his four-year prison sentence.
After his release, he said: ‘I would like to correct all the nonsense that was written about me while I was incarcerated.
‘I didn’t read anything about it on purpose, but I understand that it was very bad, that I was branded as a sex monster, as a pedophile. I’m not, really.
‘Everyone is entitled to their opinion about me, but it’s only fair if they know my side of the story too.’