13 hours ago
British man arrested for fake wedding to nine-year-old at Disneyland
A British man has been arrested at Disneyland Paris after allegedly trying to stage a fake wedding to a nine-year-old girl.
The theme park had been privately hired for the ceremony early on Saturday morning before it was open to the public, at a reported cost of €130,000 (£111,140).
However, police were called after staff realised that the bride, a Ukrainian national who was wearing a wedding dress and reportedly tottering on high heels, appeared to be a young child. They believed that it could have been an illegal child marriage.
The suspected instigator, believed to be British, played the role of the groom after 'being professionally made up to look completely different from himself', said Jean-Baptiste Bladier, a public prosecutor in Meaux.
Police were still working to formally identify the suspect, Mr Bladier added.
Alexandre Verney, the assistant prosecutor for the Seine-et-Marne department, said: 'The event turned out to be a staged event, with the guests themselves extras [invited to be part of the stunt].
'It wasn't a wedding, but a staged wedding filmed with around a hundred extras. They hired Disneyland Paris, pretending it was a real wedding.'
It was to be ''filmed privately' and broadcast on social media', added Mr Bladier.
According to Le Parisien, which first reported the incident, a man hired the Disneyland Paris complex, which is the most visited theme park in Europe, several weeks earlier.
'Day worthy of a princess'
The girl's mother reportedly told investigators that she wanted to organise a 'day worthy of a princess' for her daughter.
Staff were astonished when the nine-year-old appeared on Saturday morning, barely able to stand in stilettos, and they alerted the authorities, the French newspaper reported.
The man who organised the event had reportedly submitted false documents concerning his identity, and Disneyland filed a complaint.
A witness told Le Parisien: 'We were not told at any time that it was about a film shoot. We all thought we were going to be part of a wedding.
'Everyone was stunned. No one expected this. Disneyland does things very well. They immediately cancelled when they understood that the bride was a kid. We were sickened by that.'
The investigations, including a medical examination of the nine-year-old 'bride', found that 'she had not been subjected to any violence or coercive acts', the prosecutor's office said.
Four people were arrested on Saturday: the suspected British organiser and fake groom, a 24-year-old Latvian woman who helped organise the event and played the role of the bride's fake sister, the child's 41-year-old mother and a 55-year-old Latvian man who was recruited to play a role in the ceremony.
On Sunday evening, only the first two suspects were still in custody, the other two having been released without charge.
'Organiser misrepresented himself'
According to the Meaux prosecutor's office, Disneyland Paris was deceived as 'the organiser misrepresented himself as a Latvian national and used false documents to obtain the contract for the privatisation of the park'.
It added: 'With all charges relating to harm to the minor having been dismissed, the prosecutor's office said it would request charging the two individuals with 'fraud and breach of trust to the detriment of Disneyland Paris, which has also filed a complaint to this effect'.'
The office said it would request that they be placed under judicial supervision.
The alleged organiser and the bride's 'sister' are due to appear before an investigating judge on Monday. The Meaux public prosecutor's office said it would request that they be placed under judicial supervision.
It said that the nine-year-old and her mother 'do not usually stay in France and had arrived in the country two days earlier'.
The mother was released without charge along with the 55-year-old Latvian who had alerted staff to the subterfuge.
Mr Bladier said: 'He explained that he had been hired to play the role of the bride's father for €12,000 (£10,000) and had discovered at the last minute that she was nine years old.'
In a statement, Disneyland Paris said while it had received payment for the event, it was 'immediately cancelled' by its teams 'after significant irregularities were identified'.
