British man who 'married girl, 9, at Disneyland Paris' is convicted paedophile
A British man has been charged in connection with organising a 'mock wedding' of a nine-year-old girl in Disneyland Paris.
The man, 39, who is reportedly a convicted sexual offender and wanted in the UK, played the groom in the fake ceremony held on Saturday.
The unnamed man, as well as three others, was arrested after a guest playing the father of the groom phoned the police.
The guest, one of 100 hired extras, claimed that he was paid €12,000 (£10,000) and only realised the age of the 'bride' at the last minute.
French prosecutors charged the unnamed British man yesterday with several counts of fraud, abuse of trust, money laundering and identity theft.
The girl, a Ukrainian national, arrived in France with her 41-year-old mother two days before the phoney wedding.
Organisers placed a call-out for 200 adults and 100 children aged between five and 15 to take part in the event, French network BFMTV reports.
The advert said the event was 'confidential', only specifying that it was a wedding.
About 100 extras arrived at 5am to see the amusement park decked with white chairs, a wedding cake and a band.
Organisers reportedly used fake documents to book the park outside of opening hours for €130,000 (£111,000).
The ceremony was to be privately filmed, and organisers also allegedly hired 'Latvian nationals 'to ensure the smooth running of the event'.
According to Le Parisien, the 'scared and confused' girl wore a wedding dress and 12cm high heels 'taped to her feet'.
The 'groom' had been 'professionally made up' to make his face unrecognisable, prosecutors added.
Disneyland staff shut down the event at 6am, with a witness telling BFMTV: 'I saw a child dressed in white, I saw curly hair and a woman lifting her in her arms.
'I was shocked, I burst into tears because I realised when I saw the child, it was atrocious.'
The girl showed no signs of physical or sexual abuse.
Four people were arrested, including the British 'groom', the girl's mother, a 24-year-old Latvian woman who played the sister of the bride and the 55-year-old Latvian man hired to play the 'father of the bride'.
The British man and the Latvian woman appeared in front of a judge yesterday.
As of today, only the man is being held by police. The woman remains a witness in the investigation. More Trending
Meaux prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier said the man was 'reportedly convicted in the past, including for offences of a sexual nature against minors'.
Bladier added: 'He is, as such, listed in the British database of sexual offenders and is currently wanted nationally by the judicial authorities of his country of origin due to a breach of the requirements deriving from said order.'
Disneyland Paris has been approached for comment.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Sci-fi series savagely branded 'soulless' by critics – but fans feel differently
MORE: Two arrested after masked gunmen killed bride at wedding
MORE: Brit arrested over £110,000 'fake wedding involving child bride' at Disneyland
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ITV News
19 minutes ago
- ITV News
Australian police offer new reward in bid to find Peter Falconio's body
Australian police have announced a new A$500,000 (£238,670) reward for information that leads to the discovery of British backpacker Peter Falconio's remains. Bradley John Murdoch is serving a life sentence for killing the West Yorkshire man and attacking his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, on a remote highway in the Northern Territory in 2001. Mr Falconio and Ms Lees, both from Yorkshire, were backpacking across the country in a camper van when they were ambushed by Murdoch on the Stuart Highway, an isolated road that runs through the centre of Australia. Murdoch was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for at least 28 years. He has never revealed the location of Mr Falconio's body. Acting Northern Territory Police commander Mark Grieve said police 'still hold out hope' someone may hold 'vital information' to aid in the search. 'In what will be the 24th anniversary of (Falconio's) death this July, being next month, we're asking for anyone who may believe they have information that can assist to please come forward and contact police,' he told the media in Darwin. 'It's never too late to reach out, and at least start that conversation with police, because you just never know how beneficial that information that you may hold may be. 'We recognise the passage of time that's transpired, however, it's never too late to reach out and start that conversation with police.' Murdoch, 67, was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 and was moved to palliative care from Alice Springs Correctional Centre earlier this month, according to local media reports. Mr Falconio and Ms Lees had been driving near the tiny settlement of Barrow Creek, around 188 miles north of Alice Springs, when Murdoch pulled up beside them claiming to have seen sparks coming from the Kombi van. He then shot Mr Falconio in the head as he inspected the vehicle, before forcing Ms Lees into his vehicle and binding her wrists with cable ties. She managed a daring escape, hiding in the outback scrub for hours before flagging down a passing truck. During the trial, prosecutors argued that Murdoch had likely disposed of the backpacker's body somewhere in the vast, remote expanse of desert between Alice Springs and Broome, covering more than 1,200 miles. Despite repeated searches, Mr Falconio's body has never been found. His killer has always maintained his innocence. Ms Lees, who has since returned to the UK, told Australian current affairs programme 60 Minutes in 2017 she still wanted to 'bring him home'. 'Pete lost his life on that night, but I lost mine too,' she said at the time. 'I'll never be fully at peace if Pete's not found, but I accept that that is a possibility.' Murdoch lodged several unsuccessful appeals over the years, with Australia's highest court refusing to hear his case in 2007. He was not eligible for parole until 2033, but would have remained behind bars under 'no body, no parole' laws preventing him from being released if he refused to disclose Mr Falconio's whereabouts.
The Herald Scotland
20 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Why JK Rowling was enraged by a bad spell on social media
But even we were surprised by her latest animated argy-bargy, for she's now having a dig at American spelling. When someone on X sniped, 'You're an author. You should know how to spell COLOR correctly', Rowling raged back: 'I'll spell 'colour' 'color' the moment Americans stop pronouncing 'herbs' 'erbs.'' Art attack We continue our gruesome run of horror stories staged in Scotland's schools. Physics teacher Lisa Wilson was in her classroom at the end of the day and noticed something truly delightful on the edge of a pupil's desk. Six crusty lumps of snot, lined in a row. Deciding that this was too beautiful a sight not to be shared, Lisa dragged another teacher into the room to revel in the spectacle. 'Isn't that disgusting?' shuddered Lisa. 'But look at the symmetry,' replied Lisa's colleague. 'This pupil's not an animal, he's an artist.' Eric MacDonald spotted this sign in Paisley's Piazza, where 'busy' clearly has a very different meaning… (Image: Contributed) Mind your language 'It's not grey hair that reveals my age,' explains reader Simon Todd. 'It's my use of complete sentences and punctuation when I text.' Baffled by Bon The 1980s was an era when good taste and restraint decided to take a holiday. A decade of moustaches and mullets (currently – yeuch! – making a comeback), the charts were dominated by Bon Jovi, which is apparently a French phrase meaning: 'Warning! Ram a couple of champagne corks in your earholes if you want to survive this smug-faced rock warbler's husky screeching.' For some reason Bon Jovi's songs are still played intermittently on radio, and reader Nick Thompson's wife happened to be singing along to one of their greatest hits, where the lyrics are: 'Shot through the heart, and you're to blame…' Though Nick's wife was instead singing: 'Shockula High, and you're to blame…' When Nick corrected the error, his wife defensively explained: 'I thought there was a school in America called Shockula High, that provided a really bad education.' Walk on by As previously mentioned, the Diary is fascinated by nominative determinism, those strange occurrences when a person's name is as snug a fit as Cinderella's slipper. 'In baseball,' notes reader David Morrow, 'if the pitcher throws the ball poorly four times, and the batter doesn't hit the ball, then the batter gets a free 'walk' to first base. 'So spare a thought for Boston Red Sox pitcher Walker Buehler…' A write-off Mystified reader Ed Wales asks: 'How do you know when you've run out of invisible ink?'
The Herald Scotland
20 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Australian police offer new reward in bid to find Peter Falconio's body
Murdoch was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for at least 28 years (PA) Mr Falconio and Ms Lees, both from Yorkshire, were backpacking across the country in a camper van when they were ambushed down by Murdoch on the Stuart Highway, an isolated road that runs through the centre of Australia. Murdoch was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for at least 28 years. He has never revealed the location of Mr Falconio's body. Acting Northern Territory Police commander Mark Grieve said police 'still hold out hope' someone may hold 'vital information' to aid in the search. 'In what will be the 24th anniversary of (Falconio's) death this July, being next month, we're asking for anyone who may believe they have information that can assist to please come forward and contact police,' he told media in Darwin. 'It's never too late to reach out, and at least start that conversation with police, because you just never know how beneficial that information that you may hold may be. British backpacker Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees 'We recognise the passage of time that's transpired, however, it's never too late to reach out and start that conversation with police.' Murdoch, 67, was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 and was moved to palliative care from Alice Springs Correctional Centre earlier this month, according to local media reports. Mr Falconio and Ms Lees had been driving near the tiny settlement of Barrow Creek, around 188 miles north of Alice Springs, when Murdoch pulled up beside them claiming to have seen sparks coming from the Kombi van. He then shot Mr Falconio in the head as he inspected the vehicle, before forcing Ms Lees into his vehicle and binding her wrists with cable ties. She managed a daring escape, hiding in the outback scrub for hours before flagging down a passing truck. During the trial, prosecutors argued that Murdoch had likely disposed of the backpacker's body somewhere in the vast, remote expanse of desert between Alice Springs and Broome, covering more than 1,200 miles. Despite repeated searches, Mr Falconio's body has never been found. His killer has always maintained his innocence. British backpacker Peter Falconio's girlfriend Joanne Lees smiles as she leaves Northern Territory Supreme Court in Darwin (Wesley Johnson/PA) Ms Lees, who has since returned to the UK, told Australian current affairs programme 60 Minutes in 2017 she still wanted to 'bring him home'. 'Pete lost his life on that night, but I lost mine too,' she said at the time. 'I'll never be fully at peace if Pete's not found, but I accept that that is a possibility.' Murdoch lodged several unsuccessful appeals over the years, with Australia's highest court refusing to hear his case in 2007. He was not eligible for parole until 2033, but would have remained behind bars under 'no body, no parole' laws preventing him from being released if he refused to disclose Mr Falconio's whereabouts.
