An employee of the Gazdagrét Rainbow Kindergarten in Budapest’s 11th district, led by the liberal opposition party Democratic Coalition (DK), has been removed from his position, arrested, and committed to a psychiatric hospital run by the Ministry of Justice. A criminal investigation, accusing him of criminal sexual conduct against minors, is still ongoing, as well as an internal investigation into the serious matter by the district’s municipal government.

Péter Gy. (unlike in the US, Hungarian law prohibits the publication of the full name of individuals under prosecution, mandating the use of only the first initial of the last name) was accused of abusing children placed under his care in the public institution in a police report filed by an anonymous witness in February 2024. He was arrested days after the police report was filed, which was followed by the announcement of the internal investigation into him and another employee of the institution on 6 March.

The other employee is the director in charge of the kindergarten, Éva Dózsa-Szedlacsek (her name can be published in full, as she is not under arrest). Her culpability in allowing the abuse to take place, and thus failing to protect the children entrusted in her care, is the subject of investigation by the local municipal government. In fact, as reported by several media outlets, parents had signalled concerns regarding Gy. on many occasions to Szedlacsek, but she apparently did not take substantive action.

Now, however, concerned parents of the children attending the kindergarten fear the alleged accomplice of the paedophile will be reinstated in her position following the end of the internal investigation, which is due to conclude on Monday, 8 April.

Their suspicion is that the DK-led district leadership will try to squash the scandal by clearing the alleged perpetrator in their investigation ahead of the upcoming municipal elections in June.

Therefore, the parents wrote an open letter to the local government.

In that open letter, they write:

‘As parents of the children attending the Rainbow Kindergarten in Gazdagrét, we hereby expressly ask the municipal administration of the kindergarten to take action against the head of the kindergarten, Éva Dózsa-Szedlacsek. After the conclusion of the internal investigation launched by the municipality on 6 March 2024, which has a 30-day deadline, we also ask to maintain her suspension from her position as head of the nursery school until the investigation into the ongoing police report against her for endangering a minor is concluded.

Arrested on suspicion of sexual coercion, Péter Gy., a teaching assistant, is also under police investigation.

In our opinion, the responsibility of the head of the kindergarten, from a moral, professional, and legal point of view, also arises if Péter Gy. is not convicted by a criminal court. Both a teacher and a nanny have verbally reported their experiences and concerns about the teaching assistant to the head of the kindergarten on several occasions over several months, which support the current official suspicions. This information was brought to the attention of the police by the persons concerned in the form of witness statements.’

Paedophilia has been in the public discussion a lot in Hungary lately. Back in February, President Katalin Novák resigned after she granted pardon to a foster care employee who was convicted of trying to pressure children into changing their testimonies against the director of his institution who had sexually abused them. Ever since then, there have been attempts by both opposition parties and the liberal media to portray Fidesz, the government and specifically Viktor Orbán as ‘aiding paedophiles’.

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