International victim support organisations have called on the Olympic Committee to ban Dutch beach volleyball player and convicted sex offender Steven van de Velde from the forthcoming Olympic Games.
In a statement quoted by Trouw, the organisation said there is “no room for convicted rapists at the games”.
Van de Velde, now 29, travelled to England in 2014 to meet and have sex with a 12-year-old girl he had met on Facebook. The player told NOS some years later he had been aware of the girl’s age at the time.
He was sentenced to four years by a court in England for having sex with a minor which he was allowed to serve in a Dutch jail. Van de Velde only served 13 months because, according to Dutch law, he was guilty of committing “indecent acts” which carries a lesser penalty.
Organisations Sport & Rights Alliance, Kyniska Advocacy and The Army of Survivors said they did not object to sport being a means of rehabilitating perpetrators but that the Olympic Games, “the most prestigious sports podium in the world”, was not the place for it.
Dutch sports umbrella organisation NOC*NSF told Trouw Van de Velde was “a qualified sportsman who meets all the conditions for going to Paris” and that it was “working on a plan around Van de Velde to make sure he would find himself in a workable situation”.
Volleyball union Nevobo emphasised that Van de Velde had completed his sentence and that experts have said there is no danger he will re-offend.
Van de Velde himself, in an interview with Volleyball.nl, said he always expected his past to catch up with him. “I understand that in the run-up to the biggest sporting event in the world this will attract the attention of the international media,” he said.
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