Revealed: Dutch volleyball star, 29, at centre of massive row after being picked for the Olympics despite raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2014 is married to glamorous athlete turned police officer from Germany

A convicted child rapist whose selection for the Dutch volleyball team has sparked a massive row ahead of the Olympics is married to a glamorous fellow star athlete with whom he has a young son, we can reveal.

Steven van de Velde, 29, has been selected for the team despite his conviction for raping a 12-year-old British girl in 2014 when he was 19 and she was too young to consent - sparking a row which threatens to overshadow the beginning of the Paris games.

The 29-year-old from the Netherlands will take to the sand on Sunday morning for his first beach volleyball match when the games get underway in the French capital this weekend.

His inclusion in the Dutch team however has caused huge controversy and his own national committee has had to take extra security measures - including stopping him from staying at the Olympic village with most of the rest of the country's athletes and banning him from giving media interviews.

Despite his conviction van de Velde has successfully rebuilt his life since leaving prison to the extent that he is now married to a high profile fellow volleyball pro from Germany.

Kim Behrens and van de Velde married in 2022 and have a young son together.

Behrens, a police officer as well as an athlete, dotes on her 6' 6" tall husband and regularly posts loved-up content on social media about their lives together.

In December 2021 she wrote: 'It's probably time to officially announce it. Steven and I are having our baby in March.'

Then in January 2022, they saw in the New Year by getting married.

Behrens posted a series of wedding pics, writing: 'Mr & Mrs van de Velde. 01.01.2022 My year could not have started any better!'

After the baby was born she again was adoring of her husband writing: 'You & me! And now with him! I think I am a witness of pure happiness and love in life!'

He had initially begun talking to the girl after liking a photo of her on Facebook.

They began to speak on a daily basis over Facebook, Snapchat and Skype before he arranged to visit her, getting an easyJet flight to Luton before arriving at her home town Milton Keynes on August 2 2014.

The girl would later tell detectives that van de Velde made her feel 'special' - and that he knew her real age.

The schoolgirl told her family she was going to stay with a friend before going to meet him in the town.

They tried to book a hotel room but after struggling to do this they went instead to local beauty spot Furzton Lake, where they drank Baileys before the girl was sexually assaulted.

They then spent the night sleeping under cardboard boxes under a stairway at Premier Inn.

The following morning when her family were out she took him back to the family home where he raped her in her sister's bedroom.

He didn't use contraception and advised her to take a morning after pill.

It was her visit to a family planning clinic that alerted the authorities, who were called in due to the girl's young age - just shy of her 13th birthday.

A European warrant was issued for his arrest on child sex charges - he would have otherwise been training with the 2016 Olympic team.

The sportsman was extradited to the UK and when the case came to court two years later he then admitted three counts of rape against a child.

Linda Strudwick, defending, insisted it had been a 'spur of the moment decision' to fly to England and said van de Velde was not a 'predatory young man.'

Aylesbury Crown Court heard that his victim had later self-harmed after the trauma of her encounter with him.

Judge Francis Sheridan even told van de Velde at the time: 'Your hopes of representing your country now lie as a shattered dream.'

And his own defence counsel, Linda Strudwick, also said: 'He's lost a stellar sporting career and he's being branded a rapist. It's plainly a career end for him.'

However van de Velde, sentenced to four years in prison, was transferred from the UK back to the Netherlands to serve the remainder under a treaty between the two countries.

The treaty allowed for his charges and sentence to be adjusted in line with Dutch law, meaning the charge of rape was changed to 'fornication' - and this then meant he was eligible for release in 2017, having only served one year of his original sentence.

Van de Velde said a year later: 'I cannot reverse it, so I will have to bear the consequences. It has been the biggest mistake of my life.'

The NSPCC at the time condemned the decision, adding that his 'lack of remorse and self-pity is breathtaking'.

As if to confirm this view van de Velde was quoted as saying soon after his release: 'I have been branded as a sex monster, as a paedophile. That I am not, really not.'

Upon his release the Dutch Volleyball Association allowed him to continue his career as a beach volleyball player - culminating in the decision to allow him to go to Paris.

Vans de Velde's German brother-in-law Kevin Behrens is also a sports star who plays football for leading Bundesliga team VfL Wolfsburg and has been capped by the Germany national team.