A British man was arrested yesterday at Disneyland Paris after he allegedly tried to marry a nine-year-old girl in front of dozens of fake guests.
The suspect, 22, was allegedly the ‘groom’ at the bizarre staged ceremony which took place at dawn in front of the Sleeping Beauty castle.
He later told police the aim had been to make a video for social media.
Park staff were shocked to see the child, along with her family and a large number of attendees, turn up for the event.
Police arrived on scene and took the man into custody along with the girl’s 41-year-old mother, who is believed to be Ukrainian.
The nine-year-old had been wearing a bridal dress and was said to have worn four-inch heels taped to her feet for social media.
Organisers had booked the park – available to rent outside public visiting hours – for a function they said would be a genuine wedding ceremony.
A statement issued by the prosecutor’s office in the nearby town of Meaux said: ‘Four people were arrested and questioned: the groom, who was believed to be the organiser of the event and is presumed to be British and aged 22; the mother of the child, a 41-year-old Ukrainian woman; and two Latvian nationals aged 55 and 24.’
The 55-year-old has claimed he was recruited to play the role of the bride’s father for 12,000 euros but discovered last minute she was nine years old, local news reports.
The prosecutor’s statement added ‘police custody of the British suspect and a Latvian national was also extended on charges of fraud and money laundering’.
Disneyland Paris was reportedly deceived about the nature of the event, with the organiser assuming the ‘identity of a Latvian national’ and using ‘false documents to secure the conclusion of the contract for privatising the park’, BFM TV reports.
‘Guests’ were recruited online via adverts seeking 200 adults and 100 children aged between five and 15 to play the guests at a ‘rehearsal’ for a wedding in Disneyland.
Video obtained by BFM showed around 100 seated guests awaiting the ceremony as a female violin trio played at dawn before a stage strewn with flowers.
The event costs the organisers $130,000 (£111,000), BFM reported.
Disneyland Paris told French newspaper Le Parisien the event was immediately shut down by its team and that guests were stopped from entering the premises.
The prosecutor’s office confirmed today that a criminal investigation has opened.
Circumstances around the wedding remain unclear, but a medical examination of the young girl found she had not suffered any violence, the prosecutor’s office said.
Officials added they were not ruling out that the event may have been a prank, with the guests attending as possible ‘extras’.
The groom had said that he was the director of a production company and they were shooting a video, a police source later told Le Parisien.
A source who claimed to have been a wedding guest said French newspaper: ‘We all thought we were going to attend a wedding… Everyone was stunned, no one expected it. Disneyland did things very well.
‘They canceled everything as soon as they realized the bride was a child. We were shocked to see that.
The extras said they had been driven from central Paris on buses at 5am and handed pink bracelets with the names of the ‘bride and groom’ printed on them.
‘Guests’ were told filming was to remain strictly confidential – white chairs, a large cake, musicians and a castle were in place to make the ceremony look realistic, BFM reports.
One extra, named Yeleen, who attended the ceremony with her daughter, said: ‘I saw a little girl dressed in white. I saw her hair prepared with curls and a lady picking her up in her arms.
‘At that moment, I was shocked. I realised when I saw the child. It was atrocious.’
The prosecutor’s office later explained: ‘So it wasn’t a wedding, but a staged wedding filmed with around a hundred extras. They privatized Disneyland Paris, pretending it was a real wedding.’
The prosecution has charged the two suspects with ‘fraud and breach of trust’ against Disneyland Paris.
They will both be brought before the Meaux judicial court on today as part of the opening of a judicial investigation.
