At least two wives and four children murdered, but maybe twenty victims. Three houses near a sticky canal that we will eventually call “the houses of horror”, both prisons and places of torture. Hammer and rifle blows, saws to cut up the bodies and liters of detergent to erase all traces…
This is how for ten years, the strange pastor Andras Pándy conducted his small criminal enterprise, out of sight. Never worried despite denunciations and cries for help. The Belgian police and justice keep their eyes closed. We must wait for another terrifying affair, the Dutroux affairso that we exhume, finally, the file of Pastor Pándy.
In September 1996, Belgium, terrified, took the measure of the Marc Dutroux scandal. This rapist and child killer spent years between the meshes of the police and judicial nets. We then ask to bring out all the files that have remained unanswered, neglected or unfinished. At the PJ in Brussels, among the forty files, one of them is crossed out “Pándy”, named after Andras Pándy, 69 years old at the time, Hungarian pastordomiciled in Belgium since 1958, when he fled Hungary after the invasion of the Soviets.
Two complaints bring back a forgotten file
The police find two complaints closed without action. One, in 1984, from a certain Timea Pándy, adopted daughter of the pastor, who denounced violence against her, then withdrew her complaint. The other is more recent, in January 1992, by Agnès Pándy, who claims to have been raped by her father since the age of 13. The rapes never stopped. Agnès still reports the disappearances of her mother, her brothers and sisters and her father’s first wife. No less than six people…
Complaints should be reviewed. Contacted, Andras Pándy denies the accusations of disappearances. His wives left him, but his children are with him in Hungary. In reality, after checking, they are young extras hired by the pastor to, he says, shoot a film about his life. In October 1997, Andras Pándy is finally arrested by the police from Brussels.
The day before, his penultimate son, Andras Junior, was summoned by the investigators. He confirms that amateur actors have been hired by his father to replace missing children. He admits family members are missing and doesn’t know why. The investigation shows that Pándy owns three houses in Brussels and Molenbeek. Closed houses that we begin to explore and which will reveal a most frightening scenario…
“A Sadistic-Type Psychopath”
In total, Andras Pándy is found guilty of the murders of 6 members of his family, 5 of which were committed with his daughter. “Psy experts speak of a charismatic predatorof a psychopathic personality of the sadistic type, which only works with the feeling of omnipotence, multirecidivist”, explains Alessandra d’Angelo, investigative journalist.
The investigation also shows that before attacking his own family, Pastor Pándy was certainly not at his first attempt. “He surely carried out abuses long before his own family. He has all the characteristics of a ruthless predator, continues the journalist. He is seductive, puts people in his grip, and destroys those who want to get out of his grip.
The guests of “The hour of crime”
– Yves Smagueformer deputy editor of The voice of the Northauthor of the book Pastor Pándy’s Cellar of Horror.
– Alessandra d’Angeloindependent investigative journalist and former lawyer at the Brussels Bar.
Andras Pándy: how the Dutroux affair helped the police to arrest the diabolical pastor?