A teacher working in a kindergarten operated by the district took pornographic pictures of children for years. On April 29th, 2020 the police made an announcement that she had been working in liaison with her boyfriend. The investigators have found evidence that she also made pictures at her workplace of several of her pupils.
Besides the National Investigating Office, Europol and other foreign authorities also took part in the investigation. They have established that the teacher’s boyfriend also abused their own child sexually. The photos and videos made of their sexual abuse, which qualify as child porn, were distributed on the dark web, on websites not available for the public, presumably for money.
The municipality asked and received continuous information about the case. However, instead of urging the passing of child protection regulations or preparing kindergarten teachers to prevent and recognize child sexual abuse, it appears they did whatever they could to cover up the case. There was no internal examination and apparently no psychological help was offered to the parents and teachers affected by the case. What is worse, the municipal council passed a motion about the reduction of the numbers of kindergarten teachers.
Though the municipality already knew about the case in the early days of March 2019, the staff of the kindergarten was not informed. No wonder, as this was just before the period of enrollment in kindergartens, as well as the time of the European Parliamentary election campaign and the preparation for the municipal elections. If such a case came to light, it would have undermined the reputation of the municipal council, the majority of whom belong to the government party Fidesz. So, it is highly likely that the case was hushed up for political reasons.
Viktória Kelemen, vice-mayor responsible for education and representative for the constituency where the kindergarten is located, must have known about the case. However, in June she proposed to reduce the number of kindergarten psychologists to one, a motion accepted by the municipality. The representatives may not have known about the case, as being from a conservative Christian party, it is hard to imagine they would have deprived the children of the kindergarten of psychological help. However, if they and the vice-mayor knew what had happened, it is all the sadder that they did not consider the children’s interest.
Based on the documents available on the municipality’s website, the case was not discussed by either the council or the education committee.
