Cyclist Mathieu van der Poel has been convicted in Australia for the confrontation he had with two girls in a hotel in Sydney on Saturday night. The judge fined him a thousand euros, the NOS reports.
The judge charged Van der Poel according to the NOS It was hard for him to take the law into his own hands after the girls woke him up the night before the World Cycling Championships. According to the judge, he should not have done this and should have called the security of the hotel.
Frustration
Van der Poel spent the night from Saturday to Sunday in jail for allegedly pushing the girls aged 13 and 14. He did this because they were making noise in the hallway and repeatedly knocking on the door of his hotel room. He became frustrated because he couldn’t sleep well just before his participation in the World Cup.
He would have pushed one girl angrily against a wall and the other girl he would have pushed down, hurting her arm. When determining the sentence, the judge did not take into account that Van der Poel is a professional athlete. The fact that he took part in a major competition in Australia was not a mitigating circumstance for the judge.
In appeal
The lawsuit against the cyclist would actually take place on Tuesday. But because Van der Poel is flying home this Monday morning, the court’s agenda was adjusted. His lawyer had requested this.
Van der Poel’s lawyer says he will appeal against the ruling and hopes for acquittal. Van der Poel did not want to comment after the lawsuit.
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