Colombo: A Sri Lankan High Court judge, known for handing down record sentences including a 200-year jail term for LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam) supremo V Prabhakaran, was today (Nov 19, 2004) shot dead along with his bodyguard outside his home by an unidentified gunman, police said.

Judge Sarath Ambepitiya and his bodyguard were gunned down outside his home in Colombo's Cinnamon Garden's area, as he returned to his official quarters after sentencing a woman to a life term for possessing heroin, they said.

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The motive for the killing was not immediately known, but the judge was known to have handed down tough sentences to offenders, including drug convicts and child molesters.

In October 2002, he found Prabhakaran guilty of masterminding the January 1996 bombing of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in which 91 people were killed and 1,400 injured.

After a trial in absentia, the judge ordered Prabhakaran's arrest and subsequent jailing for 200 years.

He also handed down the death sentence to two police officers implicated in the massacre of more than 25 Tamil youngsters in a State detention centre.

Child rights activists said his slaying was a blow to their efforts to bring offenders to justice.