Mr Edington had reportedly just returned home when his wife telephoned to tell him that their next-door neighbour had abused their daughter.

The lawyer allegedly climbed through a bedroom window and stabbed Mr James a dozen times in the chest. Mr James’s 87-year-old mother, Rita, told police that she was eating a sandwich in the kitchen when she heard an argument in her son’s room.

When she entered she saw a man clamber in through the window, push her son to the floor and stab him repeatedly. He then jumped onto the bed and out of the window and ran into the next house. Mr James, who worked in a local funeral home, was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later.

Police, who arrived at the scene within minutes, found Mr Edington standing at his kitchen sink with his hands and arms covered in blood. A large knife was recovered from the nearby kitchen counter.

Mr Edington’s lawyer said that the attack was triggered by information from his wife. “The daughter gave the mother information which was alarming and disturbing. The mum relayed it to her husband. That was the spark,” Michael Sherman said.

Police Captain Gary MacNamara said that Mr Edington broke into his neighbour’s house “within moments” of hearing of the suspected abuse.

He said that the police had received no complaints of child abuse before the killing, and “we have no indication it’s true or not true”.

Mr Edington, who had been practising patent law for three years, was described by local residents as a quiet man who liked to walk his dog with his daughter.

Neighbours said that Mr James, a former local councillor, had battled alcoholism for years and would sometimes have to be dragged back into his house after passing out. He recently drove his car through the back of his garage into another neighbour’s shed.

Mr Edington recently called police to complain that Mr James was exposing himself through his window, just feet from the Edingtons’ home.

“Either he was partly clothed or revealed parts of his anatomy that were inappropriate,” Mr MacNamara said.

Peter Ambrose, representing the James family, said that the molestation claim was unsubstantiated. “There’s nothing that would arouse any suspicion,” Mr Ambrose said. “It’s totally without precedent. It’s just unfounded. It comes as a complete surprise to his family.”

Mr Edington appeared in court on Tuesday and was released on Wednesday after posting a $1 million bond. “He’s in shock,” his lawyer said. “This is the most unexpected turn of events one can imagine with this young man’s background.”

Because jurors are likely to be sympathetic to Mr Edington, experts predicted that prosecutors would strike a plea bargain reducing the charges from murder to manslaughter.

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