Villagers in Russia have raised money to pay for a lawyer to defend a local man who killed his best friend after allegedly finding footage of him raping his eight-year-old daughter.
Factory worker Vyacheslav M, 34, has been released from custody amid calls from locals and television personalities not to charge him with murdering the man, who is believed to have abused several children.
‘We have collected the money, thank you all,’ said Vyachelsav’s father, after a fund-raiser to pay for a top lawyer.
‘It was not friends or relatives who helped, but strangers from the village.’
Vyacheslav said he had been drinking with his friend Oleg Sviridov, 32, when he allegedly saw video of his daughter being abused on Sviridov’s phone.
Vyacheslav immediately confronted Sviridov who fled. He was eventually tracked down by the distraught father who stabbed him to death.
The killer has now been freed from jail and put under house arrest for two months pending an investigation.
Oleg Sviridov (left) and Vyacheslav (right) were friends and Vyacheslav said he discovered evidence of his friend’s alleged crimes while they were drinking together
Locals from Vintai village in Russia ‘s southwestern Samara region have started a petition to demand that Vyacheslav (pictured with his family) should be acquitted and spared jail after admitting to the killing
Normally, suspected killers would not be freed, but there has been an outpouring of public support for the father, including from prominent journalists on Russia’s tightly-controlled broadcast news.
Locals from Vintai village in Russia’s southwestern Samara region have started a petition to demand the rocket engine factory worker should be acquitted and spared jail after admitting to the killing.
‘Sviridov fell asleep, and Vyacheslav took his mobile phone and decided to see what his friend was looking at,’ the petition for Vyacheslav read, alleging that he found a video of his nine-year-old daughter being sexually abused by Sviridov.
‘Every father would have done this [killed someone they saw abusing their child]. This will be an example to everyone.
‘Therefore, we demand understanding from the executive branch, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee.’
The petition, which has been signed by more than 1,000 people from the Samara region, demands that Vyacheslav be fully acquitted.
However, legal expert Dmitry Palatov said a term of imprisonment was likely despite demands from locals, reported Izvestia.
Sviridov’s body was discovered by police on Thursday, more than a week after Vyacheslav had seen the abusive video.
Vyacheslav had reported the rapes to local police who then launched a manhunt for Sviridov, but the father claimed he managed to track down the alleged child abuser before the cops.
Vyacheslav later told police that Sviridov had ‘stumbled on the knife during a quarrel’ in a forest near the village, purporting that he had not intentionally murdered him with the blade.
However, police now believe that Vyacheslav more likely stabbed his friend to death moments after discovering the video the hid Sviridov’s body in the forest, reportedly because Sviridov’s time of death does not match with Vyacheslav’s original story.
Rocket engine factory worker Vyacheslav (pictured) reported the rapes to the police but claimed to have tracked down his former friend before the police could find him
Vyacheslav (pictured) is thought to have murdered Sviridov with a knife, but told police that it was accidental and Sviridov had ‘stumbled on the knife during a quarrel’
Police sources said that the deceased man’s phone contained sickening videos which showed violent rapes of other village girls, aged six and 11.
The videos indicated that the suspect had been abusing children for five years before Vyacheslav discovered the footage on his phone.
It has also been reported that one of his alleged victims was the daughter of his former partner.
‘The woman had a daughter from her first marriage,’ a friend told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.
‘Now it has turned out he was abusing the child.’
Sviridov’s ex did not know anything about the alleged abuse, said the woman friend who had known Sviridov for more than 15 years.
‘She is a very good caring mother,’ she said. ‘I can imagine what she feels like now the truth has come out…
‘He was constantly seen with the girls, the daughter of his partner and Vyacheslav’s older daughter, in the village. It never crossed anyone’s mind what he was doing with children.’
Prominent TV journalist and former Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak told her followers: ‘All parents are standing up for the paedophile’s killer.’
Another commenter, Anna Plekhanova, said: ‘If the crime is proven by video facts, then is the girl’s father wrong?
‘Any normal parent, mother or father, would have torn apart such a paedophile right on the spot.
‘Protecting children is the direct responsibility of parents.’
Yulia Salinder added: ‘It’s good that he killed the b*****d because our law would have put him in jail for only eight years – or even less – and he would be out again.’
Vladimir Novikov said: ‘It is necessary to introduce the death penalty for paedophiles or we will see the lynching of non-humans.’
Sviridov’s body was discovered in a forest close to Vintai village (pictured)
The videos show evidence that Sviridov had been abusing kids in the village for up to five years. Pictured: Vyacheslav and his family
Svetlana Katargina commented: ‘The father can be understood.
‘Such wild creatures have no place in this world and paedophilia cannot be cured.
‘Perpetrators get out of jail and start to rape children again.’
Sviridov’s mother said that her son had often been a babysitter for Vyacheslav’s children and the two men had been long-time friends.
‘I don’t know how it got to this,’ she said, referring to the rape of Vyacheslav’s daughter.
‘He must have been drunk. Most likely he was drunk. They left their children with him all the time.
‘When he baby-sat these girls he came back home as normal, in a good mood.’
Villagers are reported to be ‘united’ in wanting Vyacheslav acquitted.
‘He saved our kids from potential paedophile abuse,’ said one.
Villager in Pribrezhnoye, where Vyachelsav lives, Tatiana Zubova, said: ‘I know him personally, he is a good father and husband.’
Lawyer Vera Podkolzina said proving Sviridov’s guilt from video evidence was critical to a lenient sentence for Vyacheslav.
‘It is difficult to say what punishment the father of the girl may face, but he has very powerful mitigating circumstances,’ she said.
MP Oksana Pushkina called for harsher legal sanctions to deter child sex abuse.
‘We need tough legislative measures against paedophiles,’ she said