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Where/ How did you find that out? I have been trying to find this information online
EDIT: I did a little more searching and found this - “Appearing via a prison video link dressed in a grey Nike sweatshirt, blond, tanned Van de Velde wept as he heard his victim, named in court as Miss A, had since self-harmed and taken an overdose.”
The source is: https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/would-be-olympian-jailed-after-flying-400-miles-to-rape-a-12-year-old-girl-in-milton-keynes-1256450
The thing that confuses me is that a person can overdose on something and survive, so it’s not clear to me whether she is alive or dead as a result of her overdose.
An overdose is an overdose, a death is a death.
A lot of people survive an overdose, so if you read "overdose", it doesn't mean the person died. If you read "died of an overdose", that person didn't survive(duh).
Hope that clears up some of the confusion.
Yeah that’s kind of a wild thing fo claim.. I really hope it’s not true though. I also can’t find anything about it online. Probably to protect her, which I understand. The poor girl has been through enough. I just hope she is alive and found a way to deal with this horrible trauma
>The thing that confuses me is that a person can overdose on something and survive, so it’s not clear to me whether she is alive or dead as a result of her overdose.
My friend attempted suicide with an overdose of pills. She had to be taken to the hospital, stomach pumped, and given a bunch of medication to try to stop organ failure. That's still an OD.
An overdose is any time you take too much of a medication such that it causes severe side effects. Whether or not an overdose is fatal is determined from context.
Luckily, it's not a particularly successful way to do the deed. And a few minutes after swallowing, some people get a moment of lucidity to get help. My friend called emergency services themselves, otherwise they would have died alone.
That poor girl...
If the judge wanted to end his career he should have give him 20y and no hand over to NL. Seems a more fitting punishment for toughing a 12y old. He did only 1 y in prison……….
The English*. The Dutch only held him for 1 month.
Edit: since comments are locked (not surprised). When searching his name online the news was all in English and I read a random 6 and there it stated it was only 1 month in NL prison. Guess these days you gotta read even more than 6 fucking sources. -.-
Yeah apparently he got 4 years (still way too low), but was released after a year to ‘continue his career as a beach volleyball player’.
What kind of stupid reason is that, because he can only play it professionally for so long? Just get his ass back to prison for 3 years after then
He shouldnt get the rest of his time being able to play volleyball, if you rape someone, you gotta stay in prison, other people dont get released just because their career is short or might have extenuating circumstances. I feel athletes get too many exceptions.
That's preposterous. So just because you got a bit of talent for a sport, you just get a 75% discount or your punishment? Indeed, he should be thrown back for the remaining time instead of going to Paris. Being an athlete shouldn't be a special consideration.
Some guy named Immer? A scumbag as well one assumes.
But he brings the entire Olympic team in disrepute. They're housed together, train together, eat together. And what about opponent teams? Are they okay playing against an unrepentant child rapist?
>that I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not.
>Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it is only fair if they also know my side of the story.
I mean yeah, and i all about human rights (including prisoners) and rehabilitation but comitting a violent crime and being on the olympics or a politician or any well respected public role somehow doesn't sit right with me.
Why would you respond to this and not the post that was made 18 minutes before showing how unrepentant he is?? At least edit your comment to be truthful
I thought this would be one of those where they were both 12 and had sex but it came out and he was targeted because of it. But no, he was 19 and she was 12??!??? No. He should not be allowed. That’s terrible.
Wth, fck that guy, we really need waaaaay more severe punishment for rape, especially involving a minor... This is a sick joke.
He did 1 year..? For raping a 12 year old? He should've had his weewee and balls surgically removed and serve a minimum of 10 years of hard unpaid labour.
No wonder our country is full with these sick fcks if the punishment is so laughable.
I didn't even know about him since today. That's nasty. Even more with all of the recent sexual cases in the entertainment world and all. It had even me reflecting on my past tinder dates.
He officially did his time and was released and I guess now has the freedom to carry out his profession and all. But it was poor judgement for him to be selected to represent a nation. It's embarrassing for the nation and it sends a bad message about the values of the country.
That said I'm wondering how his matches will go with people in the audience yelling things to him every time he goes to serve the ball. When I played vball competitively the fans of the other team would say all sorts of awful shit to me when I was focusing on serving. And I was just a normal kid.
He did 12m, and he has come out saying “people have to listen to my side of the story”. No remorse. IMO, that really doesn’t sound like rehabilitation.
Yeah I agree. I cannot imagine any story from his side that would improve what we think of him. He's asking us to empathize with him, when in fact he's the one that doesn't seem to think it was wrong. This guy is shit.
Listen to these words and let them sink.
He raped a child. A child.
“He officially did his time and was released” your comment makes sense for a thief, or a tax avoider.. not a man who raped a child.
Exactly and it wasn't a case of an 18 year old getting convicted for sleeping with a 17 year old in a country where the age of consent happens to be 18. The girl was 12 at the time while he was 19 and he groomed her
Don't think this is lost on me. As a parent myself I wish torture and murder on this guy.
But my point is that even if the justice system failed here, the Olympic committee and the Dutch org should take a harder stance. At minimum they should cut all association with him, with a public statement.
Only English should be used for posts and comments. This rule is in place to ensure that an ample audience can freely discuss life in the Netherlands under a widely-spoken common tongue.
This comment section is starting to make me think that the only thing keeping a lot of dutch people from committing crimes is the law.
Never have I seen such a soulless response to the literal rape of a child.
Because he is everything a child rapist isn't in their minds.
A young professional sports man, white, blonde, their olympian.
People are stupid like that but these undertones play Parts in their assessment of this case.
If this was a Brown Guy or An uglier fat Guy nobody would really Care about the law and call for him to be castrated and or killed.
[https://nos.nl/artikel/2240281-veroordeelde-beachvolleyballer-ik-heb-gedaan-wat-ik-heb-gedaan-je-mag-oordelen](https://nos.nl/artikel/2240281-veroordeelde-beachvolleyballer-ik-heb-gedaan-wat-ik-heb-gedaan-je-mag-oordelen) He states he feels sorry..
Maximum sentence was 8 years, the judge went with 4 due to mitigating circumstances:
- victim was almost 13 and in the UK system that would have carried a much lighter sentence
- perpetrator was still a teenager and not mature in his experience and behavior
- perpetrator admitted to his crime, was sorry and cooperated with the investigation
Extenuating circumstances, hard to prove in court, I don’t know. But it is, without a doubt, really messed up for the victim that aside from a low punishment he also get’s to compete in the Olympics.
Imho e sentence should last as long as the victim suffers from trauma... So life. I find it horrid to know that victims of something like that suffer longer than the prep who can just go on with their life.
This isn't the American system, mate. Death is too far.
Plus, from a vindictive standpoint, do you really want them to escape the punishment? They won't notice being dead, but the they'll absolutely feel all those years slowly ticking by.
EDIT: To be clear, it's not that we'd miss them of they died, it's the propensity to get things wrong. The US system has had innocent people on death row rather regularly.
Most sexual assaults happen from family members too. If the punishment is *death*, it can lead to more instances of the family covering up the crime or not reporting. Uncle Jim going to jail for 20 years is way different than personally carting him in to a firing squad.
You don’t have a daughter, I presume.
I have, 13 years old, you touch you die.
A 12 year old, that guy is sick, he goes to jail, do you think he never is going to try to do that again.
12 years old is not like she was 17 and said she was 18.
Not sure if you posted that before my edit there.
You won't hear me disagree that 1 years is a total joke. Heck, the full 4 years is a joke. Heinous, heinous crime with months of planning, crossing borders, and performed repeatedly. Then no remorse at all from the statements he's made.
20 to life, and I feel I'm being generous with 20.
EDIT: It's easy to feel strongly about this, and you should, but the realities of the legal system - making sure crimes are reported, cruelty is avoided, and innocent people don't suffer too much in the system - makes it way harder than "kill them all and let God sort it out".
The death penalty is wrong.
And then he is in prison for the rest of his life and costing a shit load of money, in there until he dies.
No take hem out back and shoot him.
The kid he molested is f*cked up for life.
No mercy.
I wonder if Dutch views on privacy play into this. From what I understand, if this crime had been committed in the Netherlands his identity would have never been made public. I might be wrong though.
In the Netherlands this guy would be called "Dutch Olympic volleyball player Steven v.d. V." In the media. Whenever a well known person commits a crime they don't put any effort into hiding their identity.
Its allowed, but mostly the surname is kept to the first letter due to it being a suspect and not convicted.
I hope this guys socks will always be slightly uncomfortable.
That's usually only when someone's a suspect though. When someone has been fuind guilty the media tends to blast the full name. I guess it's to avoid "trial by media".
Only English should be used for posts and comments. This rule is in place to ensure that an ample audience can freely discuss life in the Netherlands under a widely-spoken common tongue.
Only English should be used for posts and comments. This rule is in place to ensure that an ample audience can freely discuss life in the Netherlands under a widely-spoken common tongue.
Only English should be used for posts and comments. This rule is in place to ensure that an ample audience can freely discuss life in the Netherlands under a widely-spoken common tongue.
At the risk of being downvoted:
We have a justice system. This man has served time for his crime.
He deserves a second chance as he served his time.
IF you find the time he served not enough, you need to advocate to change the law.
If people will never be able to resume normal life, then we should just kill them after they've done such a crime.
But go advocate for that
Plenty of professions don’t allow previously convicted criminals. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, certain civil servants, military etc.
Most countries’ Olympic committee wouldn’t allow a child rapist to represent their country. This is big news in the UK because the UK Olympic Committee would never have allowed it. So this sends a message to the rest of the world that we the Dutch are OK being represented by a child rapist in international competitions.
I don’t think it has anything to do with the law, it’s a decision of the Olympic committee whether an athlete can compete. If anything, the answer is to pile media and public pressure onto the Olympic committee so they change the rules to bar people convicted of serious crimes from representing us.
That’s what people are doing by heavily criticising this decision.
the girl shouldnt have to be at risk of ever seeing him again in the media or pop up somewhere.
Its immoral. I read he has children too. Pretty sickening.
He committed a crime, finished his sentence and that's basically it. Wether people like it or not, that's part of the rule of law. A person can't be convicted for the same crime more than once. If people wanted to ban him from society / the olympics / whatever, the judges should have sentenced different.
It’s sick that the victim (an actual child) has to bear the consequences and live with this for the rest of their lives while this pos gets to represent an entire country and be upheld as some type of role model… the law is notoriously imperfect as are the judges because of their internal biases.
From a moral standpoint this is not justice and it’s absolutely not okay for a child rapist to get 1 year in prison. Especially after hearing about the plight of the victim. It’s heartbreaking.
True, I think the judges could (and should) have ruled differently, but they didn't. I'm a firm believer in independent jurisdiction but that sometimes comes with (in my opinion) baffling sentences
Sure, hes clean infront of the law. But the fact that the Netherlands choose to be internationally represented by a convicted rapist is shameful.
„Oh, the Dutch? Yeah I saw that rapist guy at the Olympics, must be great people.“
There's pretty objective criteria that tell whether or not you've qualified for the olympics. NOC/NSF could have said "Oh yes you meet each and every one of them but we just don't want you" but I guess that would have had some legal issues for them
That's simply not true. There's a ton of professions you wouldn't be allowed to practise after a criminal conviction. Especially when it concerns a sexual crime. Teaching, healthcare, personal security, military, police etc.
Apparently you are allowed to represent your country on the Olympics though.
True, you aren't allowed to work with children for example, but banning him from playing volleyball is something rather unrelated. There's not a single relationship between his crime and his profession
He can play volleyball, sure. But represent my country as one of the best? He is not the best we can give. Also, he can play any sport, but I don't want to be on his team or play against him.
Also... "he served his sentence", he did not. His sentence was 4 years, he served 1. 1 is not enough for rape, raping a 12 year old is worse. Flying 400km to do so makes it more planned still and give him more chance to realise he fucked up and should go home without meeting her. 4 years is not enough.
Rape gets way to low sentences. Too many judges still see women as things and men as weak and that that weakness is something to forgive them.
I'm not a right-wing law and order idiot who thinks all sentences need to be worse and prisoners have it too easy, but in the case of rape, rapists are under-sentenced.
Altough I am surprised this guy only did 1 out of 4 years, I will always firmly believe a professional judge should choose the sentence. We know very little about law and the workings of it, they've been through multiple years of schooling even after their university degrees.
The judges don't make the rules. Lawmakers do that and set limits to sentencing. In the UK it is a trend that judges still victim blame a lot in rape and other sexual assault cases and give low sentences. In NL this is less so but still happens. Serving 1 year out of 4 is low but in NL it's normal to serve 2/3 to 3/4 of a sentence with good behaviour. What I've observed is that when a sentence is served abroad that goes even lower.
We should in general trust the legal system yes, but I always view it as trust but verify. The arguments the judges make are public. I have not read this one but I have read a few on the topic lately and they are sometimes shocking.
In the Netherlands it's now 2/3s with a maximum of 2 years. Changed in 2020 (with absolutely no good reason and a bad decision from an academic point of view).
Usually the lawmakers have a rather big margin for these kind of crimes, though I will readily admit I'm not so sure about the UK maximum. And as it's only a maximum my feeling is that it's still the judges who decide.
I haven't read the argumentation of these kinds of (British) cases, I've only ever read parts of dutch ones, which tend to focus on the law and previous cases, not views. It's interesting to hear about that.
On the other hand a pedo is still a pedo no matter how you spin it
I would not want to be associated with this kind of individual.
So yeah, f him and whoever allows him to represent a country at the olimpic games
Indeed he should have. Fucked only did 1 year. Still outrageous he can participate in such a public event. Shouldn't he also be a registered sex offender now? Having served his sentence or not, I feel like based on that, it should still be possible to exclude him.
So the point you are trying to make is that after serving your time you are never allowed to have a life again? I think it is straight up terrible what the guy did, but how does not picking up your life exactly work, you go to jail and after that you just have to sit at home until you die? Ore are there jobs you are allowed to do, just not sports?
Plenty of professions can and do. This really ought to be one. At least for sex crimes, arguably among the two worst categories of crimes that exist in any legal system!
Apparently the Dutch olympics committee doesn't think so.
They may have no grounds to not select this guy based on their standing rules, and making subjective exceptions on a case by case basis is not a great idea since it exposes the committee to all kinds of lobbying and favoritism.
Rules usually don't get made until there's a need for them, this could be such a case?
I'm probably alone in this... I saw some people already mentioned above that he has served his time, and should not be banned from society forever, which I agreed.
On the other hand, when I read the story, I saw people using provocative words like rape, groom etc. If you removed all these biased words, he started talking to an English teen girl when he was 17, also a minor. They talked for two years, and then he flied to UK to meet her. They drank. They had sexual intercourse.
We don't know how it happened, how they interacted and what they were thinking during those two years. It could be that they started talking without knowing each other's age, but as two teenagers, and fell in love. Up until the sexual intercourse, it could be just a teenager love story. If they were both drunk when it happened, and if they were lovers, it could really be a teenager mistake.
I saw people saying he groomed her, and planned all the flying to UK to rape her. Who would plan a rape in this way? It would be a romantic, or at least friendly gesture if nothing bad had happened.
The judges decided that a few years of prison was enough. I think having sexual intercourse with a minor could be sentenced way more seriously than this. There were reasons why the judge decided in that way, not locking him up forever.
Removing body parts as punishment for crimes is generally the sort of thing people consider barbaric when some of the more unpleasant dictatorships do so. That being said, if you prefer to live in a society where this sort of stuff does happen don't hesitate to contact your local Iranian embassy in order to get an immigration process started.
This country is unbelievable violent and incapable of reading a case when blonde white people are involved
You can argue he shouldn’t be on the team, I’ll agree with you. But a judge ruled on this matter and he served time in jail in the UK. So by all reasonable standards he has paid his “dues” to society. Calling for genital mutilation is horrible regardless of circumstance. If you want that bullshit move to Afghanistan
>a judge ruled on this matter and he served time in jail in the UK. So by all reasonable standards he has paid his “dues” to society
He did not serve time in jail in the UK. He came back to NL and served just 1 year of his 4 year sentence here before being released. Afterwards, he spoke to the media to say "I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not. Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it is only fair if they also know my side of the story".
He served a quarter of his sentence, in his home country rather than where he travelled to commit the offence, and he is not at all rehabilitated or remorseful. So I do not agree that "by all reasonable standards he has paid his dues to society". I'm certainly not calling for genital mutilation, but my standards are higher than "one quarter of his sentence, no regrets, and then proudly representing his country".
Edit: You reported me to "Reddit Cares" for this? How utterly pathetic, sad sack. Learn how to debate like a grown up.
He is not in charge of how long his sentence is or how long he has to sit it out
He didn’t give himself a sentence and he didn’t escape prison. He was handed a sentence and released early.
My standards are also higher but if you are angry about the results of this case the person you should be angry with is the justice system not this dude
Doesn’t surprise me. Dutch even have/had a openly Pedo party in government!!
It’s a very different culture in the Netherlands compared to other European countries.
https://www.ad.nl/nieuws/volleyballer-over-seks-met-minderjarige-dit-had-nooit-mogen-gebeuren~a1bbc8c2/
He was an adult, 19 years old. He should have known better. He did his time. He has already been back for years. I think he was at some big events/ games before.
Only English should be used for posts and comments. This rule is in place to ensure that an ample audience can freely discuss life in the Netherlands under a widely-spoken common tongue.
Not long ago the Netherlands had an entire political movement and organizations advocating for legalizing pedophilia...
You should also check the disguistingly short prison sentences child abusers receive here.
Once you give up faith, it's only a matter of time until morality becomes subjective.
That movement never got any traction, not a single elected official anywhere and was officially disbanded by the court. This is a free country, but with rules and laws.
And religion has nothing to do with that, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing pedophilic priests on the news all the time.
This goes well beyond Martijn. The Dutch government proposed to lower the age of consent in 1985 to 12 years old.... Pedophile emancipation was a big movement in the 70s and earlier, trying to redefine the issue of pedophilia as one of youth emancipation etc.
The priests you're mentioning did this in hiding, they knew it was wrong. People can do horrible things, but the problem becomes much bigger when the moral system changes to make child abuse, rape, or murder, openly acceptable.
Content and discussions should be on-topic, involving topics concerning daily life in the Netherlands. Advertisements, antagonistic political debates and/or propaganda tangentially related to the Netherlands are not exceptions. Moderators, at their discretion, may remove posts and/or ban users for violations, pursuant to Comb. Civ. C. §22SA (g){i}.
Imagine being that girl and reading this… My hearth bleeds thinking about it.
“The judge said the girl, who has subsequently self-harmed by cutting herself and taking an overdose, was naive, immature and believed she loved him.“
I mean she was 12. And obviously trying to process major trauma, this just speaks to the fact that she was a child and was incredibly harmed.
Heartbreaking. Of course she was naive. She was a child.
And “immature”. I mean by definition she was not mature.
Well, yeah, being groomed for two years by a famous person kinda does that...
Imagine being that girl’s parent and reading this. I would have a strong wish to punish this guy…
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Where/ How did you find that out? I have been trying to find this information online EDIT: I did a little more searching and found this - “Appearing via a prison video link dressed in a grey Nike sweatshirt, blond, tanned Van de Velde wept as he heard his victim, named in court as Miss A, had since self-harmed and taken an overdose.” The source is: https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/would-be-olympian-jailed-after-flying-400-miles-to-rape-a-12-year-old-girl-in-milton-keynes-1256450 The thing that confuses me is that a person can overdose on something and survive, so it’s not clear to me whether she is alive or dead as a result of her overdose.
An overdose is an overdose, a death is a death. A lot of people survive an overdose, so if you read "overdose", it doesn't mean the person died. If you read "died of an overdose", that person didn't survive(duh). Hope that clears up some of the confusion.
Yeah that’s kind of a wild thing fo claim.. I really hope it’s not true though. I also can’t find anything about it online. Probably to protect her, which I understand. The poor girl has been through enough. I just hope she is alive and found a way to deal with this horrible trauma
>The thing that confuses me is that a person can overdose on something and survive, so it’s not clear to me whether she is alive or dead as a result of her overdose. My friend attempted suicide with an overdose of pills. She had to be taken to the hospital, stomach pumped, and given a bunch of medication to try to stop organ failure. That's still an OD. An overdose is any time you take too much of a medication such that it causes severe side effects. Whether or not an overdose is fatal is determined from context. Luckily, it's not a particularly successful way to do the deed. And a few minutes after swallowing, some people get a moment of lucidity to get help. My friend called emergency services themselves, otherwise they would have died alone. That poor girl...
Its under the comment of u/generic118
I think I read it on the post that was on r/facepalm
"I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not." Yes you are
Someone please inform all media outlets that this rapist is going to represent the country.
If the judge wanted to end his career he should have give him 20y and no hand over to NL. Seems a more fitting punishment for toughing a 12y old. He did only 1 y in prison……….
It happened in 2015, so that may be why it's not in the news. It's now come back into the news because he is chosen for the olympic team.
Not yet choosen. Eligible to be chosen.
British penal and judicial system is a joke; he was sentenced way too leniently within the guidelines for his crime.
He got 4 years. The Dutch let him out after one.
The English*. The Dutch only held him for 1 month. Edit: since comments are locked (not surprised). When searching his name online the news was all in English and I read a random 6 and there it stated it was only 1 month in NL prison. Guess these days you gotta read even more than 6 fucking sources. -.-
No. The Dutch decided to release him. If he had served in the UK he would have served half his sentence minimum.
Wtf 😑
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Yeah apparently he got 4 years (still way too low), but was released after a year to ‘continue his career as a beach volleyball player’. What kind of stupid reason is that, because he can only play it professionally for so long? Just get his ass back to prison for 3 years after then
He shouldnt get the rest of his time being able to play volleyball, if you rape someone, you gotta stay in prison, other people dont get released just because their career is short or might have extenuating circumstances. I feel athletes get too many exceptions.
That's preposterous. So just because you got a bit of talent for a sport, you just get a 75% discount or your punishment? Indeed, he should be thrown back for the remaining time instead of going to Paris. Being an athlete shouldn't be a special consideration.
Who are his parents?
I wouldn’t want this guy to ‘represent’ the Netherlands
And the rest of the team are okay with playing with this monster? ETA, he plays as a duo.
He is a beachvolleyball player. So only one guy
No he plays in a duo i believe.
Yes, i meant one other guy on the team
Some guy named Immer? A scumbag as well one assumes. But he brings the entire Olympic team in disrepute. They're housed together, train together, eat together. And what about opponent teams? Are they okay playing against an unrepentant child rapist?
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>that I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not. >Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it is only fair if they also know my side of the story.
Yeah and? Is it ok to kill someone if i regret it later?
I mean kinda yeah, its what the western justice system is based on, to rehabilitate and to ensure you dont do it again
I mean yeah, and i all about human rights (including prisoners) and rehabilitation but comitting a violent crime and being on the olympics or a politician or any well respected public role somehow doesn't sit right with me.
What a fine Olympian he will be. /s
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Read his statements, he didn't regret anything of it.
Why would you respond to this and not the post that was made 18 minutes before showing how unrepentant he is?? At least edit your comment to be truthful
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Did the manager know about this?
It's public knowledge, I can't imagine they don't. They certainly know now, so I guess we'll see what happens.
I thought this would be one of those where they were both 12 and had sex but it came out and he was targeted because of it. But no, he was 19 and she was 12??!??? No. He should not be allowed. That’s terrible.
Steven vam der velde, I went to school with him. Disgusting and weird kid who thought too highly of himself
Saw the same. Whether it’s naivety or willful on the part of the Dutch IOC kinda fades in the face of this facepalm
With the IOC, I guess the answer is money. They repeatedly show that they have no concept of morals or ethics.
IOC is after fifa the most corrupt organisation in sports.
So slightly above FIA, IHF, and FIS? I'm starting to see a pattern.
Why hasn't this been on the news?
It has been, in 2015 and again in 2018
Of course it was. https://www.omroepwest.nl/nieuws/3058246/beachvolleyballer-steven-van-de-v-21-uit-den-haag-bekent-verkrachting-12-jarig-meisje
It has in the UK. It’d be in the news in NL if he was Moroccan.
Seeking racism where there isn't any..
Is het zwaar die slachtofferrol?
Downvoted for speaking facts
May be, but it hasn't have to do with anything
> It has in the UK No it hasn’t. Stop lying to push your racist narrative.
Wth, fck that guy, we really need waaaaay more severe punishment for rape, especially involving a minor... This is a sick joke. He did 1 year..? For raping a 12 year old? He should've had his weewee and balls surgically removed and serve a minimum of 10 years of hard unpaid labour. No wonder our country is full with these sick fcks if the punishment is so laughable.
Why would netherlands even allows someone like this to represent them.
I didn't even know about him since today. That's nasty. Even more with all of the recent sexual cases in the entertainment world and all. It had even me reflecting on my past tinder dates.
He officially did his time and was released and I guess now has the freedom to carry out his profession and all. But it was poor judgement for him to be selected to represent a nation. It's embarrassing for the nation and it sends a bad message about the values of the country. That said I'm wondering how his matches will go with people in the audience yelling things to him every time he goes to serve the ball. When I played vball competitively the fans of the other team would say all sorts of awful shit to me when I was focusing on serving. And I was just a normal kid.
He did 12m, and he has come out saying “people have to listen to my side of the story”. No remorse. IMO, that really doesn’t sound like rehabilitation.
Yeah I agree. I cannot imagine any story from his side that would improve what we think of him. He's asking us to empathize with him, when in fact he's the one that doesn't seem to think it was wrong. This guy is shit.
“BUT WE WERE IN LOVE”
But he only served one year of his four year sentence, before resuming playing volleyball.
Can we get the playing schedule and inform all the opposing countries of the history of this rapist?
Listen to these words and let them sink. He raped a child. A child. “He officially did his time and was released” your comment makes sense for a thief, or a tax avoider.. not a man who raped a child.
Exactly and it wasn't a case of an 18 year old getting convicted for sleeping with a 17 year old in a country where the age of consent happens to be 18. The girl was 12 at the time while he was 19 and he groomed her
Don't think this is lost on me. As a parent myself I wish torture and murder on this guy. But my point is that even if the justice system failed here, the Olympic committee and the Dutch org should take a harder stance. At minimum they should cut all association with him, with a public statement.
It didn't fail here. It failed there.
We don't do vigilante justice here. If he did his time he served his punishment and he is a free man again.
What a fine Dutch Olympian he will be! /s
Kinda fits with the PVV voting nation tbh
Err immigration and rape are the same ball game to you. Ok...
Who is that never heard of him
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Scumbag. I hope he gets hit in the head by a volleyball.
Definitely not much going on in his head, would rather have him being hit in a body part where it hurts more :)
i hope the fact that this is public information ruins his life and career
This comment section is starting to make me think that the only thing keeping a lot of dutch people from committing crimes is the law. Never have I seen such a soulless response to the literal rape of a child.
Because he is everything a child rapist isn't in their minds. A young professional sports man, white, blonde, their olympian. People are stupid like that but these undertones play Parts in their assessment of this case. If this was a Brown Guy or An uglier fat Guy nobody would really Care about the law and call for him to be castrated and or killed.
For most people law is the only thing that keeping them from not committing crimes, its not Dutch thing, its people thing.
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Please spare us your moral superiority
[https://nos.nl/artikel/2240281-veroordeelde-beachvolleyballer-ik-heb-gedaan-wat-ik-heb-gedaan-je-mag-oordelen](https://nos.nl/artikel/2240281-veroordeelde-beachvolleyballer-ik-heb-gedaan-wat-ik-heb-gedaan-je-mag-oordelen) He states he feels sorry..
Raping a child - A CHILD - should be a capital offence.
Scum
Is he convicted?
Yes, in the UK. Did 1 year out of a 4 year sentence.
You should have kept him in for longer than just 1…
I didn’t have a say in it
He was jailed in Holland. Obviously they don't care too much.
How do you even get one year for a crime like this. Should have been 20+
Maximum sentence was 8 years, the judge went with 4 due to mitigating circumstances: - victim was almost 13 and in the UK system that would have carried a much lighter sentence - perpetrator was still a teenager and not mature in his experience and behavior - perpetrator admitted to his crime, was sorry and cooperated with the investigation
Extenuating circumstances, hard to prove in court, I don’t know. But it is, without a doubt, really messed up for the victim that aside from a low punishment he also get’s to compete in the Olympics.
Imho e sentence should last as long as the victim suffers from trauma... So life. I find it horrid to know that victims of something like that suffer longer than the prep who can just go on with their life.
And taken care of in prison.
This isn't the American system, mate. Death is too far. Plus, from a vindictive standpoint, do you really want them to escape the punishment? They won't notice being dead, but the they'll absolutely feel all those years slowly ticking by. EDIT: To be clear, it's not that we'd miss them of they died, it's the propensity to get things wrong. The US system has had innocent people on death row rather regularly. Most sexual assaults happen from family members too. If the punishment is *death*, it can lead to more instances of the family covering up the crime or not reporting. Uncle Jim going to jail for 20 years is way different than personally carting him in to a firing squad.
You don’t have a daughter, I presume. I have, 13 years old, you touch you die. A 12 year old, that guy is sick, he goes to jail, do you think he never is going to try to do that again. 12 years old is not like she was 17 and said she was 18.
Not sure if you posted that before my edit there. You won't hear me disagree that 1 years is a total joke. Heck, the full 4 years is a joke. Heinous, heinous crime with months of planning, crossing borders, and performed repeatedly. Then no remorse at all from the statements he's made. 20 to life, and I feel I'm being generous with 20. EDIT: It's easy to feel strongly about this, and you should, but the realities of the legal system - making sure crimes are reported, cruelty is avoided, and innocent people don't suffer too much in the system - makes it way harder than "kill them all and let God sort it out". The death penalty is wrong.
And then he is in prison for the rest of his life and costing a shit load of money, in there until he dies. No take hem out back and shoot him. The kid he molested is f*cked up for life. No mercy.
Which he served in a Dutch prison, according to the news article.
Damn
Cant be real right???
I wonder if Dutch views on privacy play into this. From what I understand, if this crime had been committed in the Netherlands his identity would have never been made public. I might be wrong though.
In the Netherlands this guy would be called "Dutch Olympic volleyball player Steven v.d. V." In the media. Whenever a well known person commits a crime they don't put any effort into hiding their identity.
Its allowed, but mostly the surname is kept to the first letter due to it being a suspect and not convicted. I hope this guys socks will always be slightly uncomfortable.
That's usually only when someone's a suspect though. When someone has been fuind guilty the media tends to blast the full name. I guess it's to avoid "trial by media".
You're wrong. Until they are found guilty the media doesn't use ~~first~~ last names. Edit: Correction added.
Last names*
once you rape you forfeit your right to rights, just as your forcefully forfeited their right to respect and safety
yupp that’s not right
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Only English should be used for posts and comments. This rule is in place to ensure that an ample audience can freely discuss life in the Netherlands under a widely-spoken common tongue.
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Only English should be used for posts and comments. This rule is in place to ensure that an ample audience can freely discuss life in the Netherlands under a widely-spoken common tongue.
Only English should be used for posts and comments. This rule is in place to ensure that an ample audience can freely discuss life in the Netherlands under a widely-spoken common tongue.
I see people found the ig of the wife already. I wanted to express some concerns I have but people beat me to it.
At the risk of being downvoted: We have a justice system. This man has served time for his crime. He deserves a second chance as he served his time. IF you find the time he served not enough, you need to advocate to change the law. If people will never be able to resume normal life, then we should just kill them after they've done such a crime. But go advocate for that
Plenty of professions don’t allow previously convicted criminals. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, certain civil servants, military etc. Most countries’ Olympic committee wouldn’t allow a child rapist to represent their country. This is big news in the UK because the UK Olympic Committee would never have allowed it. So this sends a message to the rest of the world that we the Dutch are OK being represented by a child rapist in international competitions. I don’t think it has anything to do with the law, it’s a decision of the Olympic committee whether an athlete can compete. If anything, the answer is to pile media and public pressure onto the Olympic committee so they change the rules to bar people convicted of serious crimes from representing us. That’s what people are doing by heavily criticising this decision.
> we should just kill them Or at least not select them to represent the country in an international sporting event.
the girl shouldnt have to be at risk of ever seeing him again in the media or pop up somewhere. Its immoral. I read he has children too. Pretty sickening.
He showed no remorse
That's not true, because the fact that he did show remorse was part of the reason for the UK judge to only give him 4 years, where 8 was possible
Might be a stupid question. But how would normal civilians advocate to change the law. As in, which steps do you take?
Make a petition, get signatures, bring it to the tweede kamer.
Would you make the same comment if it was your child? Don’t forget he raped a child, a child, a child!
Would you be saying the same things if it was your daughter he did that to?
No and that's fine. The laws are thankfully not written by people who are victims or family of victims, as such people are obviously not unbiased.
Pedos don't stop being pedos. I'm ok with the death penalty for these monsters
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He committed a crime, finished his sentence and that's basically it. Wether people like it or not, that's part of the rule of law. A person can't be convicted for the same crime more than once. If people wanted to ban him from society / the olympics / whatever, the judges should have sentenced different.
It’s sick that the victim (an actual child) has to bear the consequences and live with this for the rest of their lives while this pos gets to represent an entire country and be upheld as some type of role model… the law is notoriously imperfect as are the judges because of their internal biases. From a moral standpoint this is not justice and it’s absolutely not okay for a child rapist to get 1 year in prison. Especially after hearing about the plight of the victim. It’s heartbreaking.
True, I think the judges could (and should) have ruled differently, but they didn't. I'm a firm believer in independent jurisdiction but that sometimes comes with (in my opinion) baffling sentences
Sure, hes clean infront of the law. But the fact that the Netherlands choose to be internationally represented by a convicted rapist is shameful. „Oh, the Dutch? Yeah I saw that rapist guy at the Olympics, must be great people.“
There's pretty objective criteria that tell whether or not you've qualified for the olympics. NOC/NSF could have said "Oh yes you meet each and every one of them but we just don't want you" but I guess that would have had some legal issues for them
That's simply not true. There's a ton of professions you wouldn't be allowed to practise after a criminal conviction. Especially when it concerns a sexual crime. Teaching, healthcare, personal security, military, police etc. Apparently you are allowed to represent your country on the Olympics though.
True, you aren't allowed to work with children for example, but banning him from playing volleyball is something rather unrelated. There's not a single relationship between his crime and his profession
He can play volleyball, sure. But represent my country as one of the best? He is not the best we can give. Also, he can play any sport, but I don't want to be on his team or play against him. Also... "he served his sentence", he did not. His sentence was 4 years, he served 1. 1 is not enough for rape, raping a 12 year old is worse. Flying 400km to do so makes it more planned still and give him more chance to realise he fucked up and should go home without meeting her. 4 years is not enough. Rape gets way to low sentences. Too many judges still see women as things and men as weak and that that weakness is something to forgive them. I'm not a right-wing law and order idiot who thinks all sentences need to be worse and prisoners have it too easy, but in the case of rape, rapists are under-sentenced.
Thank you for this, a sensitive comment amongst all this other very concerning opinions about this awful situation.
Altough I am surprised this guy only did 1 out of 4 years, I will always firmly believe a professional judge should choose the sentence. We know very little about law and the workings of it, they've been through multiple years of schooling even after their university degrees.
The judges don't make the rules. Lawmakers do that and set limits to sentencing. In the UK it is a trend that judges still victim blame a lot in rape and other sexual assault cases and give low sentences. In NL this is less so but still happens. Serving 1 year out of 4 is low but in NL it's normal to serve 2/3 to 3/4 of a sentence with good behaviour. What I've observed is that when a sentence is served abroad that goes even lower. We should in general trust the legal system yes, but I always view it as trust but verify. The arguments the judges make are public. I have not read this one but I have read a few on the topic lately and they are sometimes shocking.
In the Netherlands it's now 2/3s with a maximum of 2 years. Changed in 2020 (with absolutely no good reason and a bad decision from an academic point of view). Usually the lawmakers have a rather big margin for these kind of crimes, though I will readily admit I'm not so sure about the UK maximum. And as it's only a maximum my feeling is that it's still the judges who decide. I haven't read the argumentation of these kinds of (British) cases, I've only ever read parts of dutch ones, which tend to focus on the law and previous cases, not views. It's interesting to hear about that.
Athletes represent their country as the best athletes, not as the best human beings.
On the other hand a pedo is still a pedo no matter how you spin it I would not want to be associated with this kind of individual. So yeah, f him and whoever allows him to represent a country at the olimpic games
Indeed he should have. Fucked only did 1 year. Still outrageous he can participate in such a public event. Shouldn't he also be a registered sex offender now? Having served his sentence or not, I feel like based on that, it should still be possible to exclude him.
Yes, he will be a fine Olympian and a great representative of his nation. /s
So the point you are trying to make is that after serving your time you are never allowed to have a life again? I think it is straight up terrible what the guy did, but how does not picking up your life exactly work, you go to jail and after that you just have to sit at home until you die? Ore are there jobs you are allowed to do, just not sports?
Well you either let people reintegrate or you just kill them when found guilty.
There is a difference between reintegration and getting to fucking represent the country on a global stage!
I don't disagree per-se, but I suppose they're not allowed to discriminate based on criminal history - as per law.
Plenty of professions can and do. This really ought to be one. At least for sex crimes, arguably among the two worst categories of crimes that exist in any legal system!
Apparently the Dutch olympics committee doesn't think so. They may have no grounds to not select this guy based on their standing rules, and making subjective exceptions on a case by case basis is not a great idea since it exposes the committee to all kinds of lobbying and favoritism. Rules usually don't get made until there's a need for them, this could be such a case?
I'm probably alone in this... I saw some people already mentioned above that he has served his time, and should not be banned from society forever, which I agreed. On the other hand, when I read the story, I saw people using provocative words like rape, groom etc. If you removed all these biased words, he started talking to an English teen girl when he was 17, also a minor. They talked for two years, and then he flied to UK to meet her. They drank. They had sexual intercourse. We don't know how it happened, how they interacted and what they were thinking during those two years. It could be that they started talking without knowing each other's age, but as two teenagers, and fell in love. Up until the sexual intercourse, it could be just a teenager love story. If they were both drunk when it happened, and if they were lovers, it could really be a teenager mistake. I saw people saying he groomed her, and planned all the flying to UK to rape her. Who would plan a rape in this way? It would be a romantic, or at least friendly gesture if nothing bad had happened. The judges decided that a few years of prison was enough. I think having sexual intercourse with a minor could be sentenced way more seriously than this. There were reasons why the judge decided in that way, not locking him up forever.
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Removing body parts as punishment for crimes is generally the sort of thing people consider barbaric when some of the more unpleasant dictatorships do so. That being said, if you prefer to live in a society where this sort of stuff does happen don't hesitate to contact your local Iranian embassy in order to get an immigration process started.
This country is unbelievable violent and incapable of reading a case when blonde white people are involved You can argue he shouldn’t be on the team, I’ll agree with you. But a judge ruled on this matter and he served time in jail in the UK. So by all reasonable standards he has paid his “dues” to society. Calling for genital mutilation is horrible regardless of circumstance. If you want that bullshit move to Afghanistan
>a judge ruled on this matter and he served time in jail in the UK. So by all reasonable standards he has paid his “dues” to society He did not serve time in jail in the UK. He came back to NL and served just 1 year of his 4 year sentence here before being released. Afterwards, he spoke to the media to say "I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not. Everyone can have their opinion about me, but it is only fair if they also know my side of the story". He served a quarter of his sentence, in his home country rather than where he travelled to commit the offence, and he is not at all rehabilitated or remorseful. So I do not agree that "by all reasonable standards he has paid his dues to society". I'm certainly not calling for genital mutilation, but my standards are higher than "one quarter of his sentence, no regrets, and then proudly representing his country". Edit: You reported me to "Reddit Cares" for this? How utterly pathetic, sad sack. Learn how to debate like a grown up.
He is not in charge of how long his sentence is or how long he has to sit it out He didn’t give himself a sentence and he didn’t escape prison. He was handed a sentence and released early. My standards are also higher but if you are angry about the results of this case the person you should be angry with is the justice system not this dude
Did his time now wtf do you want? Change the laws if you don't like it!
This is tradition for these people
Doesn’t surprise me. Dutch even have/had a openly Pedo party in government!! It’s a very different culture in the Netherlands compared to other European countries.
This is not part of Dutch culture.
https://www.ad.nl/nieuws/volleyballer-over-seks-met-minderjarige-dit-had-nooit-mogen-gebeuren~a1bbc8c2/ He was an adult, 19 years old. He should have known better. He did his time. He has already been back for years. I think he was at some big events/ games before.
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You'll not change the country Nd it's standards - Imagine the Dutch cheering him on at the Olympics. Lol
Fuck that is gonna happen, this hasn't been know to.me until now so most likely the non-redditing dutchfolk will cheer for him storing a goal
Not long ago the Netherlands had an entire political movement and organizations advocating for legalizing pedophilia... You should also check the disguistingly short prison sentences child abusers receive here. Once you give up faith, it's only a matter of time until morality becomes subjective.
That movement never got any traction, not a single elected official anywhere and was officially disbanded by the court. This is a free country, but with rules and laws. And religion has nothing to do with that, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing pedophilic priests on the news all the time.
This goes well beyond Martijn. The Dutch government proposed to lower the age of consent in 1985 to 12 years old.... Pedophile emancipation was a big movement in the 70s and earlier, trying to redefine the issue of pedophilia as one of youth emancipation etc. The priests you're mentioning did this in hiding, they knew it was wrong. People can do horrible things, but the problem becomes much bigger when the moral system changes to make child abuse, rape, or murder, openly acceptable.
An entire movement consisting of three people who never managed to get enough support to take part in elections
Three people? You must be quite ignorant on the subject...
Yes three people. But don’t let facts come into your way. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_for_Neighbourly_Love,_Freedom_and_Diversity
Wikipedia 🤡
This ”entire political movement” consisted of a couple of people before it was banned by the judiciary.