Dutch volleyball player

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A Dutch beach volleyball player who raped a 12-year-old British girl has qualified for next month’s Paris Olympics, despite being told by a judge that his hopes of representing the Netherlands was a “shattered dream”.

Steven van de Velde was sentenced in March 2016 to four years in prison after admitting three counts of rape against a child he had met on Facebook. He had flown from the Netherlands to the UK in August 2014, when he was 19, to meet his victim.

Judge Francis Sheridan told him: “Prior to coming to this country you were training as a potential Olympian. Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.”

Except Van de Velde, who was released after serving just 12 months at a Dutch prison, has since been allowed to rehabilitate his Olympic career, this month sealing his spot in the national pair at the Paris Games alongside Matthew Immers.

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How could the Dutch have allowed this to happen? I have to wonder what his teammates think too. But of course biggest mistake and one that sent everyone the wrong message including him was to release him after doing just one year out of four of his prison time.

What do you think?

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It's a pedo paradise here. Rape and sex with minors never get a big punishment.

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https://www.linda.nl/nieuws/beachvolleyballer-steven-van-de-velde-sex-minderjarig-meisje/

CONTACT WITH UNDERAGE GIRL
Steven van de Velde, now 23, had a glittering career as a beach volleyball player. After he came into contact with an English girl via Facebook, a virtual friendship was formed. Steven, then nineteen, thought she was sixteen. Later she told him she was only twelve. Nevertheless, he booked a ticket to England and the two had sex. It resulted in a conviction for rape (in the Netherlands it was indecent assault in his case) and a four-year prison sentence for the athlete. He eventually served thirteen months in England and one month in the Netherlands.

CRIMINAL RECORD AND A SPORTS CAREER
Now he is participating in the Dutch Championship next week, but his name and his criminal record logically keep popping up. In Nieuwsuur he tells his story on TV for the first time. He absolutely does not want to justify himself. "It is the biggest mistake of my life." He immediately broke off contact with the girl when he heard her age, but in a weak moment he tried to approach her again. “I could tell her my story, she didn’t judge me.” He dreads the confrontation with the public when he opens the match next week. Still, he wants to rebuild his life as an athlete. “Everyone wants to be respected, but with something like that on your record, that’s very difficult.”

There's a reason the film "Gigi" was set in Paris: