A Dutch international beach volleyball player who travelled to the UK and raped a 12-year-old girl he met on Facebook was today jailed for four years.
Steven Van de Velde flew from Amsterdam to Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, to meet the schoolgirl after the pair started chatting online. Sentencing the sportsman, the judge said Van de Velde’s promising career was a ‘shattered dream’ and his actions had ‘wrecked his life’ and caused his victim ‘enormous’ emotional harm.
The sportsman – who was tipped for Olympic stardom – knew how young the girl was at the time he took her virginity.
Appearing via a prison video link, Van de Velde wept as he heard his victim, named in court as Miss A, had since self-harmed and taken an overdose.
source: Daily Mail Online
