• johan@feddit.nl
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    5 months ago

    I totally agree with you and fuck this guy, but there is some context to his sentence here in the Netherlands:

    One legal distinction is that Van de Velde is unlikely to have been convicted of rape had he stood trial in the Netherlands rather than England. In England, sex with a 12-year-old is rape, regardless of the circumstances: an under-16 cannot legally consent. But after he was extradited to the Netherlands, having serving almost a year of his prison sentence, he was released after less than a month. Under Dutch law, his crime was deemed to be the lesser offence of ontucht, sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms.

    From https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/30/netherlands-child-rapist-olympics-steven-van-de-velde

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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      5 months ago

      Oh I know. It’s disgusting, but it’s the law and you can’t retroactively change it. But they could, at the very least, not let the fucker on their Olympics team.

      • johan@feddit.nl
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        5 months ago

        100% agree. I’m Dutch and he’s sent there to represent me/us/the country, it’s fucking disgusting.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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          5 months ago

          It’s interesting, isn’t it, that none of the people in this thread defending him being on the team seem to be Dutch.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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              5 months ago

              That Dutch people are apparently not as supportive of a child rapist from their country than other people from other countries are.

              • Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz
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                5 months ago

                You, like most people in this thread, are confusing support for a person with support for a form of punishment which is humanitarian and rehabilitative, rather than vengeful and punitive.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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                  5 months ago

                  How is a year in prison for repeatedly raping a 12-year-old girl either humanitarian or rehabilitative?

                  He called it nonsense. He joked about finding 10-year-olds at this Olympics. He has never made a public apology. Where is the sign rehabilitation?