Sites linking government politicians to Bicske child abuse perpetrators disappear from the internet

In the midst of the presidential pardon scandal, web pages about to the heads of the Bicske children’s home are quickly disappearing from the internet. Many of the deleted content showed the two men involved in the child molestation case in the company of government politicians. However, the content of the attempted deletion is still partially accessible from internet archives, which we will present.

The website of the national child protection agency (SZGYF) and a site related to sports in children’s homes disappeared from the internet in the days following the outbreak of a national scandal. After Hungarian president, Katalin Novák sparked outrage by pardoning the accomplice of a convicted child molester, an article connecting the perpetrators with Viktor Orbán’s family completely disappeared from the website of the national child protection agency. Later, the entire website became inaccessible, and when it reappeared, articles about the Bicske childcare institution where pedophilic crimes took place were systematically deleted.

However, in the archives of Google and the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine), these materials can still be found.

Strong political connections

On 2 February, an article was published by 444.hu, revealing that a year earlier, President Katalin Novák had pardoned Endre Kónya, the deputy director of the Kossuth Zsuzsa Children’s Home in Bicske, who had been convicted in a widely decried child molestation case. Kónya was arrested for attempting to cover up child molestation allegations against the institution’s director, János Vásárhelyi, and was later sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. Vásárhelyi, who abused at least 10 minors over 10 years, was ultimately sentenced to eight years in prison.

Shortly before the scandal led to the resignations of Katalin Novák and Justice Minister Judit Varga, an interview with Vásárhelyi and a colleague received national attention.

It revealed that Vásárhelyi and Kónya, along with Győző Orbán Jr., the brother of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, organized wrestling sessions at the NIKÉ SE.

Győző Orbán Jr. was the honorary leader of NIKÉ SE and later, when the club merged with Budapest Honvéd, he became the president of the wrestling section.

Currently, the interview titled “If knocked down to the ground, one must stand up again” can only be read in the Wayback Machine’s archives.

Purging the child protection website

Several days later, on 3 February, an opposition MP drew attention to the article. Subsequently, it  was deleted, then reappeared shortly, only to be deleted again. According to the internet archive, the article was still accessible on the 3 and 7 of February.

However, on 12 February, according to Media1.hu, the interview disappeared from the child protection website. When asked by Media1 about the disappearance of the interview, SZGYF explained that the website was undergoing a “redesign.”

On 19 February, the “If knocked down to the ground, one must stand up again” interview unexpectedly reappeared on the site, but not for long.

A day later, the entire site of the child protection agency disappeared,

while the Ministry of Interior informed Media1 that SZGYF had launched an internal investigation into the events on its website.

On 21 February in the early morning hours, szgyf.gov.hu became available again, but there was no sign of the promised redesign. However, almost the entire news archive had been deleted from the site – including the incriminating interview and several other materials related to Vásárhelyi and Kónya.

We sent the following questions to the SZGYF press office regarding the website, but we did not receive any response.

• What was the reason for the unavailability of szgyf.gov.hu on 20 February 20?
• When the site became available again, a significant portion of the pre-2018 archive material, including several articles related to the Bicske children’s home, disappeared. Why did you consider it necessary to remove these?
• Earlier, you told Media1 that the site was undergoing a redesign, but currently, there seem to be no new design features on the site. What exactly do they mean by a redesign?
• You have told Media1 that an internal investigation is being conducted into what happened on the site. Does this mean that the removal of articles is not part of the planned redesign?
• What are the results of the internal investigation?

Several government members mentioned in deleted articles

Other deleted articles also point to László Kónya and János Vásárhelyi maintaining ties with the Hungarian government elite. One article reports Vásárhelyi receiving a high-level state medal (Hungarian Bronze Merit Cross) in 2016, presented by János Lázár, who at the time was the head of the PM’s Office. It was later revealed that Zoltán Balog, a Minister at the time, nominated Vásárhelyi for the award. Balog also admitted that he also supported granting a pardon to Endre Kónya.

Another deleted article accessible from Google’s cache elaborates on the collaboration between Kónya Endre and NIKÉ SE:

“On September 17, 2015, in Bicske, the opening meeting for the 2015-2016 child protection sports season took place at the Kossuth Zsuzsa Children’s Home. The event was opened by Mátrahalmi Tibor, the director of the Social and Child Protection Directorate of Fejér County, and Vásárhelyi János, the director of the children’s home. The venue, similar to the previous year, was the Batthyány Castle’s ceremonial hall and the Buzánszky Jenő Sports Hall. After evaluating the previous school year’s domestic and international competitions, the main topic was the presentation of the new sports season’s competition system. The competition system followed the traditions of previous years and decades but was supplemented with new elements. Thus, the wrestling department of NIKÉ SE, led by Olympic champion Majoros István and club president Balogh Vilmos, conducted a gym demonstration and presentation related to the sport.”

The article, attributed to Kónya, also mentioned the Franciscan monk Csaba Böjte, whose children’s home was also at the center of child abuse allegations.

Another archived report discusses the “National Child Protection Season Opening Sports Leadership Meeting” held at the Bicske Children’s Home. György Kozmann, the Deputy State Secretary for Sport in the Ministry of Human Capacities also attended the event and emphasized the role of sports in child protection. Subsequently, Kónya Endre and Vendégh Zsolt, as sports program coordinators, presented their activities and future plans for organizing sporting events for children in state protective institutions.

The event took place in September 2016, days before the broadcast of the exposé on the RTL Klub show “Házon Kívül,” which ultimately led to a thorough police investigation of pedophilic crimes (although allegations against Vásárhelyi date back to at least 2012).

The entire website went offline

Some deleted articles on the SZGYF website link to gyermekotthonoksportja.hu, which was also deleted. The website revealed that Endre Kónya had a central and national role in child protection sports and sporting events for minors living in children’s homes. In 2016, for instance, he led the Hungarian team at the U-12 Danone football world championship, where Hungary was represented by a team of children under state care.

It is unclear who exactly ran the now-deleted website. However, it often referenced a “Children’s Homes Sports Committee and Sports Club”, which seems to be a continuation of a defunct sports organizations named HÍD SE. A press release from 2014 indicated that HÍD SE ceased to exist in 2010 due to a lack of funding, but its work was taken up by the heads of the Bicske children’s institution. The site also listed Kónya as the author of some of its articles and hosted photos taken by him – this leads us to suspect that Kónya once had access to the site.

According to the Wayback Machine, Gyermekotthonoksportja.hu was available online on 3 February, shortly after the presidential pardon was made public. A Reddit post already complained about the site being offline.

Photos of politicians with felons deleted

Content from the deleted referenced Puskás Football Academy (PFLA) of Felcsút, founded by Viktor Orbán. Materials on the website also indicated Kónya’s involvement in coordinating events with political figures like Simicskó István. The site also featured a group photo taken in Felcsút, Orbán’s hometown, where State Secretary István Simicskó is pictured with the heads of the Bicske institutions. The photo itself is not available from the archive, only the caption remains:

“Felcsút – Christmas 2012… Confident looks – and a “team picture”… The picture above shows the “students” of the children’s home and the Felcsút Sports Chemistry School, the managers of the children’s home, with the managers of the facility and the academy project, and with Dr. István Simicskó, State Secretary for Sport, during a Christmas program at the end of last year.”

Several media outlets reported that an association led by the Vásárhelyi campaigned for Fidesz MP Zoltán Tessely. A photo featuring the two men was featured on the regional news site Feol, a part of a government-affiliated network of local news outlets. Following the scandal, the image disappeared from the site, however, it was also published in print and was shared online after its deletion.

In addition to archived materials, recent articles were also removed during the pardon scandal. Shortly before Novák Katalin’s resignation, a Facebook post attributed to Kónya Endre attempted to explain his cover-up of child abuse, trying to downplay his responsibility.

The post was shared by several media outlets belonging to the pro-government Mediaworks network, in an attempt to whitewash Mr. Kónya. As the scandal continued to grow, these articles were also deleted without explanation.

Written and translated by Zalán Zubor. The original, Hungarian version of this story can be found here.