About 100 remain outside the house more than a week and a half after the court ruled that the mother of Kedys' daughter should retain custody of the girl. Photo by Egle B.

GARLIAVA, Lithuania — The mother of the late Drąsius Kedys’ daughter cannot take custody of her child because of the crowd of protesters surrounding the house where she is being kept.

On May 14 the Kėdainiai District Court ruled that Laima Stankūnaitė should take custody of her daughter despite Kedys claim that she was pimping the girl out to three male pedophiles. However, it was not proven in court that the child had been molested, a claim that fueled speculation about the double murder allegedly perpetrated by Kedys last year.

Stankūnaitė said her daughter was like a “caged circus animal” at the home of Neringa Venckienė, Kedys’ sister, when she spoke to local media. She even said she feared that the girl’s father’s relatives could harm the kid with poison because they “have nothing to lose.”

Stankūnaitė has been unable thus far to go to collect the child because of the circa 100-strong crowd that is camping outside the house with burning 44-gallon drums and tents.

The crowd fears that the daughter’s health and future may be at risk if she is allowed to go back to her mother. The crowd has also ruled out letting the mother meet with her daughter even temporarily.

“Letting the girl to meet with the mother is too dangerous — she may be forever taken from Venckienė,“ one protester said.

When the daughter emerged from the house, she was barraged with shouts and questions about whether she would like to return to her mother. She said “no” and burst into tears before disappearing back into the house, the newspaper Lietuvos Rytas wrote from the scene.

The scene outside Venckienė’s house this weekend, captured by a YouTube user.

Drasius’ mother Laimutė Kedienė also told reporters that the girl did not want to see her mother.

“The girl doesn’t want to be with her mother, she doesn’t even want to visit her,” Kedienė told Russia Today.

The court decision is under appeal, but under Lithuanian law the girl should now be returned to her mother until the custody ruling would be overturned.

Both President Dalia Grybauskaitė and Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius have called for calm and respect for the rule of law. The plea to respect the ruling of the courts will do little to placate the mob circling the house because in their eyes, it is the failure of the justice system that caused the whole situation to begin with.

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