Dutch volleyball player and child rapist denied Australian visa

A Dutch Olympic volleyball player convicted of raping a British girl more than a decade ago has been refused a visa to compete in Australia.

Steven van de Velde, 31, was scheduled to play at the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide, South Australia, next month.

In 2016, the then 21-year-old pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old girl in Milton Keynes and was sentenced to four years in prison. He met the girl on Facebook and traveled from Amsterdam to England before raping her at her home in 2014.

Two weeks ago, South Australian Attorney General Kyam Maher wrote to the federal government urging authorities to refuse his visa on the grounds that his crimes were “utterly heinous”.

The letter also stated, “We do not believe that foreign child sex offenders should be allowed into this country.”

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government “will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure Australians are safe and feel safe in their communities”.

Van de Velde, who returned to the Netherlands after the rape in 2014, was extradited to England and arrested in 2016. The court heard the man was aware of the girl’s age before sentencing.

He served 12 months of his four-year sentence and restarted his professional sports career in 2018, playing for his national team in various global tournaments.

He represented the Netherlands at the Paris Olympics last year and was booed by some in the crowd. Earlier, an online petition calling for him to be banned from the Olympics had garnered 90,000 signatures.

The BBC has contacted the organizers of the world championship event in South Australia and the Dutch national volleyball federation for comment.