Yeah, he should've done that. He was literally told by the judge at the time that his Olympic dreams were over and the fact that he was still welcomed into the Dutch Olympic team after this was all well known is a slap in the face to Dutch women and girls.
So, criticizing you for raping a child is "bullying" you? I don't think the claimed rehabilitation happened. He should still be in jail.
It blows me away that that was his response. What a fucking cunt.
I guess I’m late to reading about this. As a 19 year old, he met a British 12 year old online, plied them with alcohol, raped them, pled guilty, and was punished for this.
What’s interesting is he was convicted in Britain, and then was sent to serve his sentence in the Netherlands. When he arrived, his sentence was reduced and the crime was changed because Dutch law didn’t recognise his crime as rape if force or violence wasn’t involved (they changed that this year).
Despite that I’m still astonished he was even considered to represent his country in this way. Even though the law and rules allowed it, surely common sense wouldn’t.
It is a travesty that he was allowed to represent the Netherlands. But these sports organisations always screeth about how they only care about the sports.. worldcup in Qatar using stations built on the corpses of modern slaves, no problem. Bankrupting local economies while taking all profits, no problem. Criminal contestants, who cares.
Shame on the Dutch Olympic Committee!
Ah yes, the rapist doesn't want others to have power over him. Who would have guessed. Fuck him and fuck the panel that decided he could ever join.
You sure gave yourself the power over that twelve year old girl. Shit stain. He clearly has learned nothing, and holds no remorse.
My guy, you're lucky the crowd didn't pin you down and skin you alive. Fuckin' kiddie fuckers, man. How entitled.
OH. MY. GOD. WHO. CARES.
The victim?
Not condoning what he did in any way, shape or form, but Dutch TV adds a little more nuance not covered in foreign press:
It was explained that this happened in the UK when he was 19, and the girl was 12. The sex was consentual, but in the UK sex with a minor is always considered rape, because a 12-year old is never considered mature enough to consent to sex. He served his sentence partly in the UK, then was transferred to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, consentual sex between a minor and an adult is "fornication" and illegal as well, but the punishment is less than for rape. He is now 30, and has a family. In the interview he says he is a different person than the teenager he was 11 years ago. A grown-up with a family instead of a teenager. The thing that bothered him more than being booed (he says he blocked it out at some point) was that at one point people went to attacking his volleyball partner and his wife and child.
I can't find the full interview online, but here is an excerpt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXyNaldd0qg
The Dutch interpretation of the rape of a 12 year old is bullshit. If a 19 year old goes and liquors up a 12 year old and then "has sex with" said 12 year old. The 19 year old is a predator and a rapist.
I think he deserves a second chance, in obscurity. Have him enjoy his life and family. Good on him if there is no recidivism for a crime that has a high recidivism rate.
But allowing him to represent our country at the Olympics is similar to having a convicted felon and sexual abuser on the ballot of a presidential race in the US. It should not be acceptable to anyone, ever.
Agreed
The sex was consentual
No it wasn't. The UK is right.
and the girl was 12. The sex was consentual
Leaving out the part where an adult gave alcohol TO A 12YO to have sex with her. That's not consensual, and the Dutch are absolutely wrong on that (and hopefully the changed law reflects that).
It's sad to see that his volleyball partner and family were attacked, but he's still a rapist of a pre-teen, so the only people I feel sorry for are those around him who were hurt. He, however, deserves everything he's getting.
Oh poor Steven, he thought hoots and whistles were bullying ? He should end up in a mexican prison with a big public announcement about what he did. This bastard shouldn’t make 24 hours before getting what he truly deserves
Stop with wishing such harm to people. It is a weird american fetish.. prison rape and/or murder.
Prisoners are wards of the state and should be kept safe.
Honestly, the whole idea of people getting what they "deserve" is pretty American. It's part of the whole Wild West fantasy where things were solved when the good guy shot the bad guy on the street at high noon. And of course, only people who were truly bad people got shot, so they deserved it.
And meanwhile, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. By far.
well, I’m not american, I couldn’t care less.
I have absolutely no pity for those kind of people, if you believe that rapists/pedo should be kept safe, it’s between you and you I guess
A community for discussing events around the World
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/