Dutch Volleyball player who raped 12-year-old British girl qualifies for Paris Olympics

This is absolutely repellant. Representing your country at a major sports tournament is very different to getting a job to support yourself post - sentence and living a quiet life without reoffending.

Is this where "permissive societies" get us?

Yeah, that’s the way opinions work. Get over to the thread about Taylor Swift and tell them to all shut up unless they can prove they’re American!

That's horrific. It's not a crime that should be trivialised or the effects on the child dismissed or forgotten. It's shameful. They're not exactly short of people in that country that they couldn't find someone to put up for their Olympic team.

I do believe in rehabilitation but I think this is taking it way too far. He has served his time and should be allowed to live a normal life, but he shouldn’t be able to represent his country in my opinion.

How can this man be considered appropriate to represent your country shocking that he has not been banned

I hope there are protests when he is playing

Having briefly googled the case, he was extradited to the UK for the court case and then transferred back to the Netherlands. From an online article: "The sentence was also adjusted to the standards of Dutch law." He was 19 at the time and the age of consent appears to be the same in both countries. Evidently, there is a vast difference between the two legal systems.

Wow. It's everyone's business. Olympic athletes are held up as heroes and for our young people to aspire to be like them. He's a convicted paedophile and child rapist. This is appalling and the Olympic Committee should surely ban him.

Oh look, an apologist for a paedophile.

The safety off all children is every adults business

He is a predator who sought out and attacked a British child. I think it is very much our business.

This from Wikipedia:

In 2014, he raped a 12-year-old child he met on Facebook who lived in Milton Keynes, England. He travelled to her home and, when she was without any parental supervision, gave her alcohol and then raped her several times.The victim would eventually go on to self-harm and take an overdose.

British victim, international competition, a public career? Feels like something anyone can have an opinion on 🙄

Agree. And a black female US athlete is being banned for smoking dope ...

I’m quite sure someone will be along soon to say that he’s served his time and shouldn’t be excluded from society or punished forever more.

I think it’s bloody awful that he’s not still in prison. He does not deserve to be in a position where he is representing his country and being thought of as an athlete to look up to and respect by future players.

I hope the press make a big thing about it and he is met by total silence from the crowds every time he walks out.

I just read about this. He comes across as entirely unremorseful.

Disgusting. And I am shocked that a country wants to be represented by the likes of him...

I am also shocked that the Olympics don't have a code of ethics for things like this.

Shows how little people actually care about what happens to women and girls.

He is a rapist and a paedophile.

But we wouldn't want to ruin his career would we? He's really really sowwy.