https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/articles/cpd9e0r2dxmo
Bruh.
Honestly, it was the right decision, but still.
Bruh moment.
@beardalaxy it's a Dutch thing.
He was 19 and she was 12, the "rape" is basically statuatory - they "performed sexual acts" 3 times together.
In his British conviction, it mentions rape, but in his Dutch conviction, it only mentions "fornication".
Even on his Wiki page, it says his "victim" tried committing suicide when she heard he was arrested because she felt guilty.
You can say what you want about where that "guilt" came from, but I think this case is ridiculous.
He said that he thought she was older. A 19 year old dating a 16 year old isn't bad, by Dutch standards at least.
Actually, fuck that, I even made a post here about a friend I had who was 17 or 18 dating a 12 or 13 year old. They never got caught, and I'm not going to name them, but come the fuck on.
This shit is ridiculous.
@beardalaxy his moral crime was that he abandonded an impressionable girl after spending the night with her.
https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/karen-allen-indiana-jones-pedophile-1234643243/
b e a r d
@Aldo2 idk what kind of dude can't tell the difference between a 12 and a 16 year old tbh. if he had actually taken his responsibility as an adult seriously maybe that girl wouldn't have felt guilty and tried to kill herself. i say we throw him to the wolves 
honestly i think two minors in their teens dating each other is fine, especially if the parents know and are making sure things are all good. but an adult "performing sexual acts" with a 12 year old... nahhh man that ain't it.
@beardalaxy bruh, my friend had the "parental consent" of the girl's family.
They were dating before I became friends with them.
So, basically they met when she was 9 or 10 and he was like 15 or something. Real "babysitter romance".
They were still dating when he was in uni and she was 14, so...
In fact, he was such a "gentleman" that he waited till she was 16 to "penetrate" her.
But you agree with me then, that his only real "crime" was that he didn't stay and try to legitimize the relationship (at least to the extent that the family knew).
All that prosecuting and then hounding people like this is going to do is drive ordinary people who aren't abusers who are in relations with "minors" (I'm really beginning to hate this term) further into hiding their totally normal relationships. It gaslights people into believing that they're not just criminals, but the worst criminals out there.
It's lumping in non-abusers with abusers of the worst type.
@Aldo2 i don't think the two situations are very similar. in the case of your friend, they knew each other when they were younger and were 5 years apart, things like that happen you know, that's why a lot of state have "romeo and juliet" statutes. the fact he waited to actually do stuff with her is good too. that's pretty well-adjusted and aware.
but when you're 19 and you're doin the dirty with a 12 year old, that's a different story. that's a 7 year age difference where one isn't even a teenager and the other is an adult. there was no "staying to legitimize the relationship" in that scenario. according to articles i can find he knew full well what her age was (which you claimed wasn't the case) and met her on facebook. straight up groomed her online and traveled to a different country to have sex with her and i think it's reprehensible to defend that.
adults have a certain responsibility to not take advantage of children. it doesn't matter if you think that children are capable of sexual thought and feelings and might be enamored by the thought of being with you for one reason or another. if this guy was 17 and they had known each other for a while and the parents were cool with it and he had the presence of mind to not push things too far until she was old enough, it'd be a different story. these are not comparable.
dude is a predator. full stop. he only got four years in prison and that's not nearly enough for grooming and raping a minor and being manipulative to the point where she thought it was her fault and tried to take her own life. that should be his predicament right now, not hers, meanwhile he is chilling as an olympian athlete.
i know i have minors that are attracted to me, it has been that way for years due to me being a musician. not tooting my own horn or anything, that's just how it goes. i have had moments where i could have taken advantage of that and didn't because i'm not a douchebag. so when i see people take advantage of that, well... i call it like i see it. much like the shit with dr disrespect and chris tyson recently, i don't understand what is so hard about just not being a creep to underage people (or in general). let alone FLYING TO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY TO HAVE SEX WITH THEM WHEN THEY'RE NOT EVEN A TEENAGER YET.
@beardalaxy I did say it was a "Dutch thing" as a preface, heh. Things are different there. That's not to say that this is or was condoned, which was why he was punished.
Also, you have to remember that at that time he was a well-known up-and-coming athelete as well (at least in the Netherlands, if I remember). I don't want to sound like an ass, but the girl probably knew, and that's why they established contact over Facebook (the most obvious "social media" platform).
I think she asked him to visit, and he said yes, not the other way round. Once he was there, sure, he got alcohol and "plied" her. I find it strange that not a single article mentions her family, or where they were at the time, but that's an aside.
Although, again, this is U.K. schoolgirls here. When I was in boarding school, we had one or even two weekly "binge nights" where we'd get drunk as a mob of kids and get chased by police and teachers with torches.
We'd go to town and ask older men to buy us beer. One time, me and my friends had to wait in a smoke-filled room with a topless woman offering us snacks...
And we were around that age at that time as well.
There were rumors all over school about girls getting with young teachers ("private tutoring"), or girls being spied on by (P.E) teachers.
They even made a film (St. Trinians) which even starred a girl (now lady) who was in my school, and that's basically the plotline (making/getting alcohol) to the film haha
I dunno man, I remember my childhood differently to other people, it seems.
How is 1 or 1.5 years difference THAT much of a deciding factor? Everyone knows there is variation.
And in the case of my friends' gf, she's French, so you already know she was drinking and being sneaky even before 12. She would come into bars with us and get free beers by acting like she was in our age-group, although she couldn't hold hands with her bf because that would be too obvious.
@Aldo2 the linked article in the one you sent me said that her mother was gone from the house when he went over there, and another time it was at a park. idk how hard you're looking for this stuff but, come on man.
just because things happened to you or people you heard about doesn't make it okay for it to happen to other people. wild take.
I'm not saying it's OK, I'm just saying that it happens.
12 year olds can pursue men. I'm not saying that I condone it or advocate for it, have reciprocated it, ever, or anything like that.
I've just seen it, is all.
Yeah, it's the "social politics" which is the issue. Big Pharm don't cause the issue, they just exploit it.
It's like how "mass-shootings" work in America. They blame guns while simultaneously pumping kids with more meds to "prevent outbursts".
All this is basically to say, in general, people want to escape from the truth.
@Aldo2 i ask my original question then, why the fuck are we letting child rapists into the olympics? he served 4 years and is now able to be a star athlete? super scummy. they took him right back when he got out.
it reminds me of how the guy who had abused drake bell went to jail and right when he got out, was offered a job at disney working on more teen/children television. these people protect their own and don't give a shit what happens to kids despite any sort of posturing they might do.
@beardalaxy yeah, obviously he shouldn't have a job that puts him anywhere near children, lol
No drag queen story hour for you!
But I do think, after having spent so much of his life before and after jail in sports; in a specific sport, it would just be wrong to deny him at least a chance.
@beardalaxy fuck, now I sound like a Kevin Spacey fan, dammit!
Point is, what he did was bad but overblown. He's not Roman Polanski, at least he served his time.
@beardalaxy or maybe he is, who knows...
Gat dayum the pedo pipeline is wild (although, this is Hollyweird)...
@beardalaxy also, it's amazing that the Wiki page is being edited and re-edited in real-time...
And yeah, she told him she was 12, that's why I said "actually, fuck that" afterwards and cited my friend's case.
In their case, they were in different schools, let alone different age-groups. The distance from NL to the U.K. is like 1-2 hours bruh, like a car drive in America.
Again, I'm not condoning what he did. He abused the trust of a 12 year old girl. But it's not like 12 year olds are somehow not an actor.
What I don't like is no one appears to care what the girl actually thought/thinks about the whole situation. Last time I checked the Wiki page, they said he told her to check for pregnancy/contraception, which is a very Stalin thing to do (again, I'm not defending these actions).
Meanwhile, the "victim" is being pumped full of drugs and "medication" and "therapy sessions", literally like the "MAP propaganda" meme. You claim she tried killing herself because of him, and not because she felt guilt for destroying his life.
I genuinely feel that the "guilt" comes from recognizing that they control the life of a man, at 12 years old. They can destroy life. That is like killing a dog at that age. THAT is the guilt, at least, that's what I feel (facts don't care about your feelings blah blah).
@Aldo2 yeah so maybe as an adult you shouldn't even entertain the idea of letting a child wield that responsibility
@Aldo2 because now she's not just a victim of an adult who took advantage of her being a hormone addled girl starting puberty and figuring shit out, she is the victim of the medical industry and social politics. if he hadn't entertained it, this wouldn't be as likely.
@Aldo2 why are we letting convicted child rapists enter the Olympics