Brian Holm charged with sex offence

The Danish press is reporting that Brian Holm has been charged with a sex offence against a minor.

The former professional rider, who is now a sports director at the Omega Pharma-QuickStep team, spoke briefly to the media on Tuesday in Copenhagen.

Holm started by saying that the decision to talk to the press was his alone, as both his lawyer and journalist friends of his had told him not to say anything. His name had not officially been released in connection with the alleged incident, but when rumours connecting him to it meant that journalists and friends — including fellow former pro Jesper Skibby — had begun ringing him to ask what was going on, he’d felt compelled to speak.

Although he didn’t do so during the five-minute press conference, according to Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet, Holm has already denied the accusation.

A clearly upset but otherwise relatively calm Holm appeared to become more emotional when explaining that it was the fact that his daughter had been threatened at school that ultimately forced him to come forward.

"My daughter came home from school yesterday, where some of the other children had threatened to make her do things she didn’t want to do, else they’d say that her dad was a criminal," said Holm.

"This is a terrible situation, but I can tell you that I already feel 100 times better by standing here and saying this than I did yesterday," he continued. "We’ll have to take it from here. My lawyer has told me that I mustn’t say anything more, as it could be used against me."

However, Holm made it clear that he had never wanted anonymity.

"What happens next, I don’t know, but I do know that it was going to be impossible to not say anything for another week, or two weeks or a month, and just hide."

He also said that he knows that he’s now likely to be "hung up on a cross, but that’s how it is", and before finishing reiterated that when it had started affecting his children "and all I could do in response was stand in the corner like an idiot, then I wasn’t prepared not to say anything any longer".