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Judge Jonas Furmanavicius
The prime suspect in a brutal double-murder case in Lithuania has been hailed a hero for apparently taking revenge on those he believed had sexually molesting his daughter.

Drasius Kedys disappeared after Jonas Furmanavicius, a leading district court judge, and Violeta Naruseviciene, his daughter's aunt, were shot dead on 5 October.

The 37-year-old divorced father had made repeated and public accusations that the judge had sexually abused his four-year-old daughter, and also claimed that the aunt was supplying him with young girls.

Police believe Mr Kedys, apparently frustrated and angered with legal inertia and suspecting powerful figures in Lithuania's legal system might organise a cover-up, took the law into his own hands and killed both with his legally owned handgun.

Mr Furmanavicius was gunned down in what police called a "hitman-style" execution as he got out of his car in Kaunas, Lithuania's second city, while Ms Naruseviciene died a short time later.

But far from becoming a figure of fear and loathing, Mr Kedys has enjoyed a surge in popularity, with sympathetic citizens rallying to his support.

Facebook has two fan pages dedicated to him, one with 19,000 members and the other 4,000, with hundreds of messages posted for a man seen as a vigilante fighting for justice and to protect children.

"He paid for the child's tears with his own blood" read one slogan attached to a picture of Mr Kedys, while another claimed that sometimes "the law must be taken into your own hands".

Demonstrators, bearing posters calling Mr Kedys a "child protector", have also taken to the streets of Kaunas and the capital Vilnius. "I'm not saying that I agree with Kedys' behaviour, but it's obvious in our society people have to protect their rights by themselves because they always face such situations where either they will do something or nothing will be solved or even discussed," one Vilnius resident told a local newspaper.

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Police appeals for information on the whereabouts of the suspect have provoked a muted response, with only a handful of people reporting possible sightings, prompting speculation that few Lithuanians want to see him brought to justice.

The groundswell of support for Mr Kedys has been interpreted as an indication of widespread frustration over corruption in the country's legal system.

A 2008 survey by revealed 49 per cent of Lithuanians regard their courts as corrupt. But the story, which has dominated the headlines in Lithuania for days, has already had an impact.

Lietuvos Rytas, one of Lithuania's leading newspapers, has claimed that Andrius Usas, a businessman and politician whom Mr Kedys also accused of molesting his daughter, is now facing paedophilia charges.

Algimantas Valantinas, the country's prosecutor general, has promised to "fix the mistakes we've made", when it comes to investigating high-profile allegations of paedophilia. "There are indications that not everything was done properly in respect of alleged sexual exploitation of the girl," he said. "No officer related to this investigation shall escape responsibility."

The prosecutor's office has also started an internal investigation into Kedys' original accusations.