Latest news with #Ukrainienne
The Guardian
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Disneyland Paris calls in police over alleged fake wedding with child ‘bride'
French police were questioning two people on Sunday after Disneyland Paris was hired for an alleged fake marriage ceremony involving a girl aged around nine. The theme park complex outside Paris had been hired for what was presumed to be a genuine private wedding early on Saturday morning before opening hours. But Disneyland staff and security called police when they noticed that the so-called bride, wearing in a wedding dress, was too young. After police investigated, the local prosecutor's office in Meaux said the event was not a real marriage ceremony. 'The event turned out to have been staged, the guests themselves were all actors,' the deputy local prosecutor told Agence France-Presse. 'So it wasn't a wedding but the staging of a wedding, which was filmed with around 100 extras. They had privately hired Disneyland Paris claiming it was a real wedding.' Four people were arrested and taken into police custody. Two were still being questioned on Sunday on suspicion of fraud and money-laundering. They included a man said to have been the fake groom, who is alleged to have organised the event. He is 22 and thought to be British, AFP reported. A 24-year-old Latvian woman was also being questioned. The young girl, who is Ukrainian, was not found to have suffered any 'violence or constraint', the prosecutor's office said. Her mother, aged 41, was released from questioning, as was a 55-year-old Latvian man. Disneyland Paris is Europe's most-visited theme park and can be hired for weddings at a very high price outside opening hours, with its Sleeping Beauty Castle as a backdrop. It was uncertain for what reason a fake wedding might have been staged there, nor the role of the child. The local daily paper, Le Parisien, reported that extras who were to attend in the role of guests were taken by bus to the area. One of the acting extras who was hired to attend what she thought was a real wedding told France Inter radio: 'I saw the panic of the Disney people, then, through the window, I saw a small child with a wedding dress on. A woman was carrying her in her arms and that's when I understood that the child was really young.' Disneyland Paris told the station: 'A private event booked at our destination was immediately cancelled by our staff after irregularities were identified. Police were called and arrived quickly.' The theme park said it was cooperating with authorities and had filed its own legal complaint.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
French police 'arrest 22-year-old British man accused of trying to marry girl aged nine at Disneyland Paris'
French police have arrested a 22-year-old man believed to be British amid claims he tried to marry a nine-year-old girl at Disneyland Paris on Saturday. Park staff were shocked to see the child, along with her family and around 100 guests, turn up for the event and quickly called the police. Officers arrived on the scene and took the man into custody along with the girl's 41-year-old mother, who is believed to be Ukrainian. 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.' It added that the 'police custody of the British suspect and a Latvian national was also extended on charges of fraud and money laundering.' The prosecutor's office also confirmed that a criminal investigation has opened. The wedding ceremony was scheduled to take place at dawn as private events such as weddings at the theme park are organised outside public opening hours. Disneyland Paris told French newspaper Le Parisien that the event was immediately shut down by its team and that guests were stopped from entering the premises. The circumstances around the wedding remain unclear, but the prosecutor's office said that a medical examination of the young girl found that she had not suffered any violence. They also said that they were not ruling out that the event may have been a prank, with the guests attending as possible 'extras'. A police source later told Le Parisien that the groom had said that he was the director of a production company and that they were shooting a video. A source who claimed to have been a wedding guest told the 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.' '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 prosecutor's office later explained to AFP.
