The lawyer of convicted paedophile swimming teacher Benno L has again called for his client to be allowed to move abroad, after demonstrations outside his new home in Leiden at the weekend.

‘If his presence generates such resistance, if we are so narrow-minded and intolerant, then we should also say: we have to do this differently,’ Pieter van der Kruijs told Nos radio on Monday.

L has German nationality and wants to move to Germany but that is not possible under the terms of his release from jail. Germany has not yet implemented EU rules making it possible to keep him under strict supervision, Van der Kruijs said.

Jail

Benno L was jailed in 2010 for abusing a number of girls in his care but is now on supervised release.

He was arrested in June 2009 after hundreds of suspect photographs and films were found on his computer. He ran a swimming school specialising in teaching handicapped children to swim.

Several dozen people gathered outside his home in Leiden on Sunday calling on L to be moved out of the city. Protestors have also started a Facebook campaign against him.

The demonstration, which was monitored by a heavy police presence, broke up after the arrival of Leiden mayor Henri Lenferink, who had not informed locals that L was moving to their neighbourhood.

Lenferink told the demonstrators he had not gone public with the move because he wanted to ‘build up experience and look at how the situation developed’ in a peaceful atmosphere, the Telegraaf reports. ‘He has served his sentence and that means he has to return to society,’ the mayor said. He promised to inform locals by letter fully about the situation and pledged to hold a follow-up meeting with them.