Van de Velde was booed and jeered while competing at the Games. Dutch Olympic officials went to lengths to protect him from the press during the event.
He has now opened up to Dutch publication NOS about his experience, admitting that while he anticipated backlash, the intensity of it took him by surprise. "I definitely had a moment of breaking down, both before the tournament and during it. But I thought ‘I’m not going to give others the power to bully me away or get me away’.
I’m sorry… you feel like you’re the wronged party here?
Is this dude a fucking sociopath?
Probably, considering he groomed a child in another country over the internet before he traveled there and raped her repeatedly.
He was proclaimed innocent of grooming. Because he did not groom her. Do people not know basic details of a case before they start spouting nonsense on the internet?
Excuse me? What do you think happened, she seduced him?
She was twelve years old.
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Dude. She was 12. Have you eve spent time around 12-year-old girls? This is some sick, “she led me on” shit.
Also, who wrote these case notes and please show them to me. You also claimed he apologized and I’ve seen no sign of that either.
I’m amazed that you are trying to take the high ground here.
According to the case notes, the attraction was mutual
It’s irrelevant if the child is willing, they are not old enough to make those choices. She was 12 and had no capacity to agree to sex with a 19 year old. Especially one that gave her alcohol.
Like, stop talking about research start using a modicum of common sense.
He’s pulling out a smaller version of the DARVO tactic. Sexual predators do that quite a bit when they get caught.
Deny, attack, reverse victim and offender.
“The audience was wrong to boo me! They’re the bullies!” Meanwhile he completely ignores why he got booed.
Well maybe you shouldn’t have raped a child, dipshit.
Multiple times. And only got a year in prison for it.
Multiple was unknown to me. Even worse. And this article was the first time I saw that he travelled to another country to do so. Wow. I wonder how this has affected the victim.
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Which is zero. A 12-year-old can give zero consent. Yes, when a child is groomed and brainwashed by her rapist they tend to do things like react badly when the rapist is caught. That’s why it’s so important for them to have the care they need. It’s not important to have weirdos online defend their rapists.
Bully you? Motherfucker, you raped a 12 year old multiple times and kept going when she said you were hurting her.
This, I support criminal rehabilitation but only if you’ve served your time correctly, never expected this to be condoned in Europe amongst other places, I think he deserves to at least serve his full conviction time
I’d be a little more understanding if he seemed remorseful at all. He does not.
And he still hasn’t apologized for what he did.
He also doesn’t consider himself a pedophile despite grooming and raping a child multiple times.
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Please do show evidence of this.
He literally said it during the interview this article is about.
And I quote:
I did something wrong 10 years ago. I have to take that. But hurting the people around me, whether it be Matthew (his teammate) or my wife or my child… that goes too far for me.
And from a previous interview in 2018 (in Dutch): https://nos.nl/l/2240281
I did what I did. I can’t reverse it, so I’ll have to live with the consequences. You may judge me, of course. It is the biggest mistake of my life.
Neither of those are apologies. I am really concerned about what you think apologies are and what you think is acceptable for an adult to do to a child.
Good Lord neither of those are apologies come the fuck on.
Am I the problem? Has this been the result of my actions? Have I done something henious? No, it’s the audience that’s wrong - this fucking chode
Boo-fucking-hoo. I’m so sorry people weren’t so dazzled by your athletic ability to ignore the fact that you’re a rapist. I’m sure the 12 year old you raped is also real fucking worried if her rapist is getting his feelings hurt. I mean, rape is one thing, but bulling? I mean, we have to draw the line somewhere. /s
“I’m not going to give others the power to bully me away or get me away”
Uhhh, WHAT?!?
Some people haven’t been punched in the mouth and it really shows
some mistakes you pay for your entire life. just like your victim(s). next time you do a streetview search of your neighborhood for sex predators, remember that all those pins covering the map only represent the people who got caught
“It’s certainly not nothing that’s been fired at you. I think it’s a shame, it’s been 10 years, I’ve played more than 100 tournaments. I understand that it’s an issue, should someone with such a past be allowed to stand on such a podium? That’s a legitimate question.”
He seems somewhat self aware…
Controversial take: If people don’t want pedos back in society, don’t let them back in society. Change the laws.
Here’s another controversial take. We did something like that before, where we excluded a group of people from society because we didn’t like them. In the US we called it “Separate but Equal” and “Jim Crow”. I think it was called Apartheid in South Africa. Now I understand you aren’t suggesting we segregate people based on their race but rather their past convictions but it is similar and will have a similar outcome. Though you may want to limit it to a specific type of crime I will guarantee that it will expand to encompass more crimes and more people will be convicted of those crimes so that they can be excluded from society as well. Even here in the US there are some Republicans talking about adding teachers to the sex offender list if they talk about the wrong topic to their students.
You are seriously comparing punishing pedophiles to Jim Crow laws? Are you really comparing the abuse and mistreatment of black people to the punishment of pedophiles? Do you have any idea how that makes you sound?
Did you even read my post? Here is what I said:
Now I understand you aren’t suggesting we segregate people based on their race but rather their past convictions but it is similar and will have a similar outcome.
I was pretty clear on what I said. Segregation is bad no matter your excuse. If they did their time in prison then they return to society. If you don’t like how much time they served then argue for a longer sentence without it being cruel and unusual punishment. Further excluding them from society after their sentence is up does no good except make some people feel better. Why not do that for all crimes from the terrible ones like murder and manslaughter to DUIs and fraud. Kick everyone out of society so we can have only people with clean records. But since you came to my reply with your outrage why don’t you elaborate on why you are upset. What problems do you have with what I said?
You can argue rehab vs punishment, but what you are being downvoted for, correctly in my view, is for comparing people who were convicted for crimes according to law directly with people who never did anything wrong in first place.
You may say that everyone who finished serving a sentence is equal to anyone else before the law, but that may not be the case in practice, there are lots of legitimate reasons for people to stigmatize e.g. if they personally don’t agree with the sentencing length.
That may or may not be fair, but it is what it is.
Stigmatizing someone just because of the way they look is just wrong, people may have tastes in who they want to hang out with, but it is not equivalent to naturally fearing an ex-convict.
Everyone: “Rape is bad”
You: “Have y’all heard of racism?”Rapist vs segregation?.. Really.
This is like boomers saying calling them boomers is the same as the N word.
You’re right it will be abused. I would like to say, in no way was I advocating for anything. I personally feel that once a person has completed their sentence they should be done. Period. Pedos disgust me but if they’re done with their sentence that’s it. They’re done.
Drop them off at point nemo equipped with a swimsuit and a banana.
^🎻
Daily Mirror - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
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MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: Medium - Factual Reporting: Mixed - United Kingdom
Wikipedia about this sourceWhy are they even interviewing him, he should be shunned.
This is a bit of an interesting conundrum …
Granted, I do not know the details of the crime for which he plead guilty and was sentenced. Was it a violent rape? Or was it a concensual get together but she was far to young and he was slapped hard for it? Now I don’t condone it either way but it might give nuance to how he feels about it.
On one side, he, and society overall see it as he served his sentence (not all of it but that is not his fault) and is rehabilitated, he made changes to his life after that and made sure he is not near minors alone again, now even has a family of his own.
But, I really think it’s wrong to think rehabilitation means you can stand on a podium for admiration, or be in a place that strives for excellence in rhe public eye.
This is where he and the people around him should have realized that, no, no matter how good he is in his sport, he should just not be a competitor in the olympics as a shining example of greatness.
Rehabilitation means to be allowed back into society, in a menial job out of view and not in a spotlight of any kind.
It is definitely not a full reset on your life and you can do whatever, thinking people mostly forgot what you did.
So the bullying boo’s are quite justified imo and he should have expected this backlash because he sought the spotlight and admiration for his greatness in sport. And it shows he thought it a deserved thing for his ego following the years of hardship he went through after making a big mistake when he was young.
A 12 (TWELVE) year old cannot consent in the UK. So that’s a strawman argument.
Was it a violent rape? Or was it
a concensual get together but she was far too young and he was slapped hard for itstatutory rape because young children cannot consent?FTFY. It was statutory rape. He groomed a 12 year old, and slept with her multiple times. It wasn’t just a spur of the moment thing; It was planned, and he went out of his way to convince the victim that having sex was her idea.
On one side, he, and society overall see it as he served his sentence (not all of it but that is not his fault)
To clarify: He was sentenced to several years where the crime happened, but was extradited to his home country after only a few months. After extradition, he didn’t serve any time. So he only served a few months total.
and is rehabilitated
He had repeatedly refused to even acknowledge it during the games, and tried to downplay it every single time he was directly asked. Not even so much as a “yeah I messed up but I’m doing my best to make up for it.” Just straight up refusal to engage. Refusing to even admit you messed up doesn’t really tell the public “yes this person has been rehabilitated.” And again, he only served a couple of months for the crime.
he made changes to his life after that and made sure he is not near minors alone again
The Olympic Games are mostly minors, and most of the athletes live and sleep in close proximity to one another for the duration of the games. The Olympics are also pretty notorious for the massive orgies that happen after hours. They even have special beds (which the athletes always complain about) designed to only hold the weight of one person, because they couldn’t find better ways to stop all the athletes from having hardcore sex parties every night. Almost as if cramming a bunch of the world’s most physically fit teens into a close space and forcing them to sleep in one giant hotel will lead to rampant sex.
He was a 19 year old man in the Netherlands talking to a 12 year old child in the United Kingdom on Facebook. He traveled to see her in the UK, got her drunk, raped her, and then attempted to get a hotel room with her. They couldn’t, so they slept under a stairwell and he raped her twice the next day. She had told him at one point that he was hurting her, but that didn’t stop him. After that, he flew back to the Netherlands and told her to go to a clinic for contraception.
So they were essentially strangers to each other with a significant age gap. I don’t know what her exact intentions were when speaking with him, but she was 12. Even if she were thinking about sex, it would not have been with an understanding of what that actually meant. She wasn’t just under age, she was well under the legal age of consent. There’s a reason that children cannot legally consent to sex.
Also, he’s never really shown any remorse for his actions. At best, he’s said that it was the biggest mistake of his life, but his overall stance seems to be that he regrets getting caught rather than raping a child. He’s much more angry at people calling him a pedophile than he is at himself for doing wrong. So your final points may be true, but they aren’t really relevant to his case because it doesn’t appear that he could be considered rehabilitated. He’s merely completed a prison sentence which was made lighter by Dutch law not classifying his actions as rape at the time.
Thank you for elaborating on the backstory, seems I did not know half of the past of the case.
Tried a short google but there was no old in depth information about the case back then.
All in all it is at least a strange thing that the people around him thought it was a good idea for him to attend the olympics and enabled him to do it.
The man recognizes it’s within his interests to show remorse.
Does he truly feel it? We’ll never know.
He’s not showing remorse at all. He never has. He’s bummed he got booed at the Olympics.
