- Steven Van de Velde travelled from the Netherlands to the UK to meet the girl
- He was jailed for four years but was released after serving a year of his sentence
- Former Olympian Paula Radcliffe has now wished him ‘the best of luck’ in Paris
BBC pundit and Olympian Paula Radcliffe has wished luck to a Dutch paedophile who raped a 12-year-old girl.
The former World and European champion runner, in Paris for the broadcaster, made the staggering comment during a radio interview.
Beach volleyball player Steven Van de Velde, now 29, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to raping a 12-year-old British girl when he was 19.
His inclusion in the team has sparked a huge controversy, with security upped at the Dutch team’s base in the athletes’ village.
However, Radcliffe rejected claims that Van de Velde should not be competing.
Former GB star Paula Radcliffe wished Steven Van de Velde the ‘best of luck’ at the Olympics
Dutch Olympic beach volleyball player Van de Velde was jailed for child rape back in 2016
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‘It’s a tough thing to do to punish him [van de Velde] twice and if he’s managed to successfully turn his life around after being sent to prison and to qualify and be playing sport at the highest level, then I actually wish him the best of luck’, she told LBC.
The BBC have been contacted for comment.
Radcliffe also waded in to the scandal surrounding dressage star Charlotte Dujardin, who was banned for six months and withdrew from the Games after footage emerged of her repeatedly whipping a horse in a training session.
Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr, the retired long-distance runner also bizarrely said that while she found it ‘distressing’ to watch the video of Charlotte Dujardin whipping her horse, she felt for ‘both sides in it, particularly if that’s what goes on all the time with dressage’.
Responding to an X user who called her comments ‘shocking’, she said: ‘I agree and can only apologise, that isn’t what I intended to say. I stress that it isn’t something that can be excused in any way. I was confused in my head and responding to the right to ban him from the Games and I don’t know why I wished him luck. Again I apologise’.