Steven van de Velde, a Dutch Olympic volleyball player who was convicted of raping a British girl a decade ago, has been denied a visa to compete in Australia. The 31-year-old was scheduled to participate in the Beach Volleyball World Championships in Adelaide next month.
In 2016, van de Velde pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and received a four-year prison sentence. He had met the girl through Facebook and travelled from Amsterdam to England before committing the assault in her home in 2014. South Australia’s Attorney-General Kyam Maher had urged the federal government to reject van de Velde’s visa application, describing his crimes as “utterly abhorrent”.
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated that the government is committed to using all available measures to ensure the safety of Australians. Following his conviction, van de Velde served 12 months of his sentence and resumed his professional volleyball career in 2018, representing the Netherlands in international tournaments, including the Paris Olympics where he was reportedly booed by some attendees. An online petition to ban him from the Olympics had previously garnered 90,000 signatures.