r/nottheonion • u/DerangedUnicorn27 • 6d ago

Convicted child rapist qualifies for Olympics

https://www.newsweek.com/steven-van-de-velde-dutch-beach-volleyball-olympics-1918442
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u/Eggplantosaur 6d ago

He raped a 12 year old girl, admits that he did it, and only did one year of prison time? 

What the fuck?

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u/DerangedUnicorn27 6d ago

Yep, true story. It’s appalling and disgusting. And a depressing number of people support him.

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u/mamapizzahut 6d ago

I would really like to hear someone Dutch explain this. In the US rape of a minor is one of the most serious imaginable offenses. Clearly there is a different approach there - how do they justify it?

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u/MischiefTulip 5d ago

He was convicted in the UK. So not sure about their sentencing guidelines. He was allowed to do his sentence in Dutch prison. But to me the ones in NL are shockingly low as well. For full on rape of a minor it's 15 to 48 months. But it does stack per victim and can be longer based on other factors. (Force/age of the victim etc) So we do have cases where the perp ended up doing 19 years. (Robert M, got tracked when a pic was found in an US case btw) 

Why he got out after a year I don't know. I do know with good behaviour you can get out after x% of your sentence. Those decisions are made by a judge. There's some commotion here as well and the volleyball and Olympics committees are being bombarded with complaints. So far nothing has happenend. Hopefully international attention will help.