Dutch Volleyball Player who Raped 12-Year-Old British Girl Qualifies to Compete at the Paris Olympics

[orange jar]

by Oliver Brown of the Telegraph:

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.

link to full story here: https://www.msn.com/en-ie/entertainment/tv/dutch-volleyball-player-who-raped-12-year-old-british-girl-qualifies-for-paris-olympics/ar-BB1oSz0l

Jesus fucking Christ.

[Dave Bowman]

1. Not even a slap on the wrist. Disgusting.

[orange jar]

3. It is truly sickening.

Girls (and women too) rarely receive justice. It is a worldwide epidemic.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Pretty Low Standards

First, 12 months for child rape seems preposterously low.
Then, as a convicted sexual predator, the country's Olympic committee allowed him to participate?
Riduculous

[orange jar]

4. Morals be damned when it comes to professional athletics.

That's a bit of a broad brush, I know, but it's not uncommon to see athletes receive more leniency / grace than other groups of people, even when they've committed some of the worst crimes possible. Maybe it comes with the inherent privilege, I don't know, but it's genuinely so disheartening when rapist celebrities can move forward with their reputations intact.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Tell That To Sha'Carri Richardson

She missed an Olympics because of smoking pot. And, I wouldn't consider pot smoking to be a moral failing.
Yet, it cost her a life-long dream.
At least she qualified for this coming Olympics, too.
In this case, this guy shouldn't even be out of jail yet, let alone getting this opportunity.
I think more athletes pay a price for their transgressions that you suggest.

[getagrip_already]

8. I have never been impressed with olypic committee's

They have always been old, regressive white fossils more interested in money and politics than sports or athletes, and certainly show no interest in human rights.

As a rule anyway, I'm sure there are exceptions occasionally. This doesn't sound like one.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. I Share That Sentiment, In General

They have to prove me wrong for me to feel otherwise.
The situation in the OP is not one of the cases where they prove me wrong.

[Igel]

6. Netherlands is a democracy. So is Britain.

He committed a criminal act.

He was convicted.

He was sentenced.

He did his time. Under British laws.

Is what he did wrong and even horrendous? Yeah. It was.

But if we argue the government should grant him the right to vote and decide laws and representatives once a debt is paid, that's their business. He paid his debt--got debt relief, but he paid his debt.

The rest is moral revulsion (which I have no problem with) and mob (which I do have a problem with). But a democratic government can't afford to be a mob.

[getagrip_already]

12. Athletes are held to a higher standard.....

Like it or not, they are held to be role models and symbols of integrity.

They get disciplined for even minor infractions of rules or laws in host countries.

He should have been dq'd, especially given the proximity to children in sports.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. "Mob"? What is "mob" here?

DUers are discussing an incredibly low sentence served. That does not make us a "mob".

[kcr]

15. The DU "mob"

is saying 12 months is less than a slap on the wrist for child rape. You don't agree?

[niyad]

7. I wonder how the child victim, now a grown-up, feels about this.

[niyad]

9. May he, and his enablers, receive everything they deserve.

[niyad]

10. Yet another reason to despise the olympic committees.

[harumph]

13. Gosh it would tragic then if something untoward were to befall this man

prior to his competing again. Oh the irony~!