Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

“If I assaulted children, I’d be locked up”: Father of teenage girls involved in Mathieu van der Poel hotel incident slams Dutch star’s fine

“He’s got every right to get angry, but not to do what he did”

The father of the teenage girls involved in the incident which led to Mathieu van der Poel being charged with assault the night before the world road race championships in Wollongong has criticised the decision to fine the Dutch rider A$1,500, allowing him to travel home to Belgium yesterday.

Emad, the father of the two 13 and 14-year-old sisters who were reportedly confronted and pushed by Van der Poel after knocking on his hotel room door, told the Daily Mail Australia that the 27-year-old had “every right to be angry, but not to do what he did”.

On Monday, Van der Poel – one of the pre-race favourites for the rainbow jersey in Wollongong – was fined a total of A$1,500 (£909) after admitting two counts of common assault in connection with the incident in his hotel in the Sydney suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands.

> Mathieu van der Poel charged with assault after incident at hotel hours before World Championship road race 

According to New South Wales Police, the Dutch cyclist pushed both girls, with one of them falling to the ground and the other sustaining a grazed elbow after scraping it against a wall. Video footage has since appeared online showing a girl about to knock on a hotel room door before her, and a second girl filming, are chased into their own room opposite by a topless man.

Van der Poel had been due to appear in Sutherland Local Court yesterday, but the hearing was brought forward to facilitate his return flight to Belgium. After admitting both counts, he was fined A$1,500 by Magistrate Hugh Donnelly, who told him that he was wrong to have taken the law into his own hands and should have called hotel security instead. Due to his conviction, the Alpecin-Fenix rider will be unable to re-enter Australia for three years.

Van der Poel told waiting reporters at Brussels Airport yesterday that he regretted his handling of the situation, but denied pushing or attempting to intentionally harm the girls.

> Mathieu van der Poel fined A$1,500 after pleading guilty to assault after hotel incident 

However, the sisters’ father Emad has allegedly supplied the Daily Mail with photos of his daughters’ injuries, including carpet burn, and told the newspaper that the girls are “very shaken” due to the late-night confrontation.

Emad, whose wife was staying in the hotel for the weekend with her friend and their four children, recognised that the girls’ practical joke angered Van der Poel, but did not justify his actions.

“I see her knocking on the door in the video and I can see from the way she walks away that she was very scared,” he said. “The eldest is a daredevil, but this shocked her. He was yelling at my youngest, the 12-year-old, saying ‘were you doing this as well?’ and she was freaking out. They are very shaken.

“But they did get in trouble. They are in trouble,” he admitted. “He’s got every right to get angry, but not to do what he did. They’re tiny little girls, and he’s massive.

“Look, I did things when I was their age, but the younger one had Covid only a few weeks ago and this was their time out. They were excited… but then they were a bit naughty.”

He continued: “My wife’s angry that he’s fled the country as well as what he did.”

> Video footage of Mathieu van der Poel hotel incident appears online 

The father of another girl involved in the incident also expressed his frustration to the Daily Mail that the cyclist was fined and allowed to leave Australia.

“If I assaulted children, I’d be locked up in jail for a year because I can't afford bail,” John, the father of the 13-year-old Van der Poel allegedly pushed, said. “Child abuse is a big thing.”

The 43-year-old also claimed that his daughter has experienced nightmares since the incident.

“We went to the hospital on Sunday and I’m taking her to the psychologist because she's scared,” he said.

“She's worried she’s in trouble and has done something wrong because some people are blaming her and me, saying it was the girls’ fault and I’m a bad parent, but it was the school holidays – what kids at that age are going to bed at nine o’clock?”

While John conceded that the girls shouldn’t have been playing the game that provoked Van der Poel, he also argued that the 27-year-old’s subsequent behaviour was “unbelievable” and unjustifiable.

Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

Add new comment

37 comments

Avatar
domats | 1 year ago
1 like

the Alpecin-Fenix rider will be unable to re-enter Australia for three years.

Australia?   That's a reward, not a punishment.

Bit of a muppet not calling hotel security to sort out, 'cos there are lots of compo scrounger ypes around these days, not afraid to use their kids.

Avatar
dubwise | 1 year ago
9 likes

What a fkn arse.

If that was my daughter, who is14, I would have been apologising and she would be grounded for a long time.

Avatar
Sriracha | 1 year ago
9 likes

I'm just amazed the parents haven't had a visit from social services. Post pubescent girls knocking on strangers' hotel room doors at night, whilst the parents have no idea (and don't care) what they're up to? Could have been a tragically different story.

It sickens me that the parents cry "child abuse", firstly because by applying it so glibly they debase the term, and secondly because they overlook their own failings in safeguarding their daughters to begin with.

Avatar
Paul J replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
1 like

The mother did know though. According to AD, MvdP (or perhaps Roxanne - not 100% clear) *had* complained to the mother *prior* to Matthieu losing it. The mother, it would appear, continued to leave her kids unsupervised, despite the complaint.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
5 likes

“If I assaulted children, I’d be locked up”:

"If I'd locked up my children they wouldnt have been assaulted"

Fixed that for him.

Avatar
Secret_squirrel | 1 year ago
10 likes

OMG.  The comments in the mail piece on this - for the first time ever - are nearly 100% pro cyclist.

Not linking cos its the Heil.

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael | 1 year ago
15 likes

“My wife’s angry that he’s fled the country as well as what he did.”

He appeared in court, plead guilty, was fined, had his passport returned and took his pre-booked flight home.

It's not like he dyed his hair, got a false passport and resurfaced several weeks later taking yoga classes in Costa Rica.

Avatar
brooksby replied to Simon_MacMichael | 1 year ago
0 likes

I'd wondered about that, too.  He had his day in court, etc etc.  He has left the country, but I'd hardly say he's fled it.

Although of course he joins Johnny Depp and Amber Heard as persona non grata in Australia for a few years...

Avatar
Freddy56 | 1 year ago
2 likes

Come on Road.cc

 

BACK TO BIKES.

This is tabloid shite

Avatar
ChrisB200SX replied to Freddy56 | 1 year ago
5 likes

Freddy56 wrote:

Come on Road.cc

 

BACK TO BIKES.

This is tabloid shite

Nobody is forcing you to read it.

Avatar
Rendel Harris replied to Freddy56 | 1 year ago
5 likes

Freddy56 wrote:

Come on Road.cc

BACK TO BIKES.

This is tabloid shite

One of the hot favourites for the road world title didn't (really) contest it because of an incident, I reckon quite a lot of people who follow cycling are pretty interested in hearing what happened, no?

Avatar
deanj | 1 year ago
12 likes

Any decent parent would be telling their kids that they learned a useful lesson - that actions have consequences. The kids had little more than a clip round the ear. If thse kids are seeing a psychologist now, the parents should look closer to home for the reason.

Avatar
Christopher TR1 | 1 year ago
8 likes

What a lot of rubbish. Of course VDP should have handled it better, but the kids were being stupid and trying to get a reaction. Which is what they got!

Only things to blame here are high teenage spirits and possibly poor parenting.

Avatar
cyclisto | 1 year ago
7 likes

A night of lost sleep would hurt me more than a carpet burn. And I am not a pro cyclist making out money by having to be 100% alert. Let's rethink who got abused.

Avatar
PRSboy | 1 year ago
15 likes

The guy is on the make, clearly.

My 12-14yr old daughters did not go to bed at 9 in the school holidays necessarily, but I knew where they were and they would not have been knocking on strangers hotel bedrooms. Get a grip man.

Avatar
Paul J replied to PRSboy | 1 year ago
0 likes

And their mother had already been told they were bothering guests. Yet, continued to leave them unsupervised.

Avatar
giff77 | 1 year ago
7 likes

"but it was the school holidays – what kids at that age are going to bed at nine o’clock?”

When I was that age in the late 70's early 80's I was expected to be in bed at the very latest by 9pm. Scout night would have allowed a later night. Even at 16 when I was starting to socialise more,  I had a curfew of being home by 10 pm, though bed time was a bit later.  A lot of my peers were all in the same boat. Even when I was working in youth work our bed time for that age group on camps was strictly 9pm. I know society has moved on but I still can't get my head round parents allowing pre-teens to run riot at all hours. 

Avatar
brooksby replied to giff77 | 1 year ago
7 likes

I don't think that anyone was complaining about his kids being not in bed after 9.

I think that people were complaining about them p!ssing about and disturbing the other hotel guests after 9...

Avatar
giff77 replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes

brooksby wrote:

I don't think that anyone was complaining about his kids being not in bed after 9.

I think that people were complaining about them p!ssing about and disturbing the other hotel guests after 9...

Was more to do with the father of one of the girls commenting about what child goes to bed at 9pm rather than folk commenting here. 

Avatar
alansmurphy | 1 year ago
18 likes

To call this 'child abuse' is terribly demeaning to anyone that has ever suffered child abuse!

 

Can I claim offence on their behalf and sue these parents?

Avatar
Morgoth985 replied to alansmurphy | 1 year ago
15 likes

I agree.  He's clearly milking the situation for all it's worth, which attitude in my view goes a long way to explaining why the little brats behaved as they did.

This is not child abuse.  And bloody well don't suggest it is, John, because child abuse is horrific.  What this is, is negligent parenting on your part.

[edited- I see it was "John" rather than "Emad" who came up with the child abuse bollocks.  Twats both of them].

Avatar
Paul J replied to Morgoth985 | 1 year ago
0 likes

FWIW, the dad wasn't there. The kids were on a (weekend?) break with their mother, the friend of a mother and the friend's child(ren).

But yeah, the atittude of the parent speaks volume. As does the fact that - by AD's reports - vdP (or perhaps Roxanne, his gf) had already complained to the mother *prior* to the incident. In which case, the mother continued to leave her children unsupervised in their hotel room *despite* having been told they were bothering other guests.

Avatar
Jimmy Ray Will | 1 year ago
13 likes

Do you know what... 'a bit naughty' is not how I'd describe the behaviour of individuals aiming to deliberately jeopardise the livelihood of another person.

If those were my kids, I'd be ashamed. Ashamed at their behaviour, ashamed that my parenting (or lack of) had enabled such behaviour. Ashamed that my lack of parenting and the poor behaviour of my children had been made so visible. 

MVP got busted, and on balance rightly so, however these kids, and indeed all Australian kids, have just been empowered to act as they want, knowing there is realisitcally no consequences for their actions. 

It's an ugly episode for all parties. 

Avatar
brooksby | 1 year ago
13 likes

If you admit he had every right to be angry, Emad, why the F didn't you STOP your kids before things went this far??? 

Avatar
Paul J replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
1 like

And reports (e.g. from AD) are that complaints were made to the parents about the kids prior to the incident. So the parents (well, the mother of the girl - she was on a break with a female friend and both their kids) basically ignored van der Poel's complaint and *continued* to leave these teen kids *unsupervised* in their hotel room *despite* knowing they were going around bothering other guests.

Avatar
Simon E | 1 year ago
9 likes

So the kids need a psychologist because they provoked an athlete and then called the police?

F**k me, what a snowflake. Those parents seriously need to grow up and take some responsibility for themselves.

Avatar
mctrials23 replied to Simon E | 1 year ago
14 likes

The kids are fine. Its just the sort of people who wouldn't be mortified at their children doing this are just the kind to try and get their 15 minutes of fame and make a few quid out of it. 

Most sensible people would be embarassed to be involved in this. The fact they aren't speaks volumes. 

Avatar
Oldfatgit | 1 year ago
10 likes

So MvdP can't return to Australia for 3 years due to a couple of kids not knowing how to behave in hotels.
Maybe Australian hotels - now that they have the family name - should refuse any booking from them for the same period of time .. in the interest of the safety and well-being of other hotel guests.

Avatar
dreamlx10 replied to Oldfatgit | 1 year ago
0 likes

If they tried to ban them from the hotel you know they'd play the race card

Avatar
TempleOrion replied to dreamlx10 | 1 year ago
0 likes
dreamlx10 wrote:

If they tried to ban them from the hotel you know they'd play the race card

Nah, it's you that's doing that, right here. I wonder why?

Pages

Latest Comments