Da Vinci rapist protesters ‘will keep coming’

THE faded curtains on the cottage remained drawn while traces of egg yolk and shells were still smeared across the window panes.

Two protesters maintaining a vigil outside the house where Robert Greens now lives said that the 34-year-old was inside the property when the Evening News called yesterday afternoon in a bid to speak with him.

Sarah Sime, 19, who has been on the protest almost daily since it was launched last month, said: “We’ve seen the curtains moving but he only opens the doors to police and folk from MAPPA.”

Meanwhile, her fellow protester Glen Hogarth, 24, held up a sign across the street from Greens’ cottage which read “Toot Toot Beast Oot” in large red letters.

Over several minutes more than a dozen drivers on the quiet rural road blared their car horns as they passed by.

Mr Hogarth said: “I’m not sure if they will move him because of the protest, but I think we can make Greens crack under the pressure.”

The front of the cottage next door is covered in hand-drawn banners calling for his removal, although protesters said the woman who lived there had moved out in the wake of her new neighbour’s arrival.

More signs on sheets tied across a fence opposite the cottage read “Put the beast in a cage” and “Get the beast oot”.

A single tent is still in the woodland behind it where a makeshift protest camp had been established.

Ms Sime, who is from Dalkeith, said: “We still get 30 or 40 people here each night despite the bad weather. Nobody is camping anymore.

“Greens should still be in jail or six feet under, so I think people will keep coming.

“The police come by often and they’re straight here if Greens pushes his panic button. Most of them are nice enough to us. Some folk throw eggs at Greens’ windows, even when they are going past in cars.”