A pro-paedophile group calling themselves the “Children’s Liberation Front” attempted to infiltrate a pride parade over the weekend in Amsterdam before being removed.
A man claiming to represent the group handed out leaflets and other materials on the edges of the parade calling for paedophiles to be allowed to join the LGBT community, but members of the public reacted with anger, Le Figaro reports.
Some people participating in the parade became so angered by the man’s actions that police were forced to evacuate him from the area and confiscated his materials, but did not arrest him.
“Public order was going to be disturbed. Due to strong reactions to the leaflets, they were confiscated. The individual then left of his own accord, ” police spokeswoman Jelmer Geerds said.
“He was not arrested. He can pick up his prospectuses later, as is customary when items are temporarily seized in the interest of public order,” Geerds added.
While several in Dutch media have claimed that only one man is behind the group — the same man who handed out the leaflets at the pride parade — the group briefly had a Twitter account claiming to have participated in the parade. The account has since been suspended by Twitter.
Following the incident, a petition was signed by over 14,000 people to “Prohibit paedophiles at the gay pride of Amsterdam”.
Earlier this year, the Stockholm pride association was also forced to deal with a paedophilia scandal after it was revealed one of its members had attempted to request sex from an underage boy over the gay dating app Grindr.
The “boy” was, however, a pair of journalists named Negra Efendić and Adrian Sadikovic of Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet who found more than a hundred men propositioned 14-year-old “David” for sex.
In 2017, another member of Stockholm pride was fired from the organisation after it was revealed that he had been previously convicted of raping a 13-year-old boy in 2011.