Dutch volleyball participant and baby rapist denied Australian visa

A Dutch Olympic volleyball participant convicted of raping a British woman a decade in the past has been denied a visa to compete in Australia.

Steven van de Velde, 31, was attributable to play on the Seashore Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide, South Australia, subsequent month.

In 2016, the then 21-year-old pleaded responsible to a few counts of raping a 12-year-old woman in Milton Keynes and was sentenced to 4 years in jail. He had met the woman on Fb and travelled to England from Amsterdam earlier than raping her in her residence in 2014.

Two weeks in the past, South Australia’s Lawyer-Normal Kyam Maher wrote to the federal authorities, calling on authorities to reject his visa as his crimes had been “completely abhorrent”.

The letter additionally mentioned “we don’t consider that overseas baby intercourse offenders needs to be granted entry to this nation”.

Australia’s House Affairs Minister Tony Burke mentioned the federal government will “proceed to make use of each software we have now accessible to make sure that Australians may be protected and really feel protected of their communities”.

After the rape in 2014, Van de Velde returned to the Netherlands however in 2016, he was extradited to the UK and arrested. Forward of his sentencing, the court docket heard he was conscious of the woman’s age.

He served 12 months of his four-year sentence and restarted his skilled sporting profession in 2018, taking part in for his nationwide workforce in a number of world tournaments.

Final 12 months, he represented the Netherlands on the Paris Olympics and was booed by some individuals within the crowd. Earlier, an internet petition calling for him to be banned from the Olympics had attracted 90,000 signatures.

The BBC has contacted the organisers of the world championship occasion in South Australia and the Dutch nationwide volleyball affiliation for remark.