By: Ariella Haviv

In a case that has provoked horror and disbelief across Europe, a 39-year-old British convicted sex offender was detained over the weekend after orchestrating a chillingly elaborate mock wedding with a 9-year-old girl at Disneyland Paris. According to a report on Wednesday in The New York Times, French prosecutors confirmed the man staged the event using a stolen identity, enlisting dozens of paid actors to unwittingly participate in a “ceremony” that was abruptly shut down when park staff realized the bride was a child.

The bizarre and deeply disturbing episode unfolded on Saturday morning, before the theme park opened to the public. According to Jean-Baptiste Bladier, the prosecutor in Meaux, police were summoned to what appeared to be a “fictitious ceremony intended to be filmed privately” near Sleeping Beauty’s castle. French authorities have since opened an investigation into fraud, identity theft, and potential corruption of a minor.

As reported by The New York Times, the suspect—who allegedly used falsified Latvian documents—had gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal his identity. Prosecutors stated that he had undergone professional facial alteration makeup, rendering him nearly unrecognizable, even to law enforcement. Despite these measures, his profile and history align with that of Jacky Jhaj, a British man previously convicted in 2016 of engaging in sexual activity with underage girls.

Jhaj, known in the UK for bizarre public stunts and fake events involving hired extras, reportedly used a similar playbook in this latest scheme. French investigators revealed that the man had booked a private event space at Disneyland Paris using fake credentials and recruited roughly 100 extras, each paid €200, through online classified ads promising a “high-end wedding rehearsal” with a strict dress code and confidentiality clause.

According to the information provided in the Times report, a French actress, Yeelen Eyogo Edzang, who had been hired for the event, recounted seeing a full string quartet and chairs arranged before the castle. Moments before the faux ceremony was to begin, she said, distressed Disney staff began moving through the hotel lobby. “The girl is 9; we are stopping everything,” she heard one of them say.

Through a hotel window, Edzang saw the small child dressed in crinoline being carried by a woman—an image that, she said, evoked shock and deep discomfort among the extras. “She was tiny,” Edzang recalled in an interview.

The suspect’s tactics bear an unsettling resemblance to previous incidents. According to the information contained in The New York Times report, the Metropolitan Police in London confirmed that a 39-year-old man matching Jhaj’s description is wanted for breaching the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and violating the UK’s Sex Offenders’ Register. While British authorities declined to name him publicly, the BBC identified the suspect as Jhaj based on corroborated reports and past behavior.

In the Disneyland case, one Latvian actor hired to portray the “bride’s father” told police that he was paid €12,000 for the role and only discovered the girl’s age at the last minute. Alarmed, he promptly notified park security, who then contacted the police. According to French authorities, the child—a Ukrainian citizen—was accompanied by her mother. Both had arrived in France just two days earlier. A subsequent medical examination concluded that the girl had not been physically harmed or coerced into participating.

Disneyland Paris has since confirmed that the event was “immediately canceled by our teams after major irregularities were identified.” In a statement reported by the Times, the park noted that it is cooperating fully with authorities and has filed a formal complaint.

This is not Jhaj’s first brush with scandalous and exploitative behavior. As the report in the Times noted, in 2023, a BBC investigation exposed a staged fake movie premiere in London’s Leicester Square involving hundreds of child extras hired to act as fans at a bogus red carpet event. In another disturbing episode in June 2024, Jhaj was detained in East London after reportedly filming young girls outside a dance school without parental consent.

His earlier conviction in 2016—after posing as a film producer and attempting to lure girls outside schools with alcohol and false promises—led to a four-year prison sentence. At the time, the Metropolitan Police labeled him a high-risk offender, imposing strict conditions upon his release.

The disturbing case has prompted serious questions about institutional safeguards and venue vetting. As The New York Times report pointed out, the fact that a known predator was able to stage such a large-scale and highly orchestrated event at one of the world’s most secure amusement parks indicates significant gaps in identity verification procedures and event oversight.

Despite clear red flags—such as the unusual request for secrecy, the early-morning hour, and the age of the “bride”—no alarms were raised until the day of the event. The ease with which false documentation was used to bypass security measures is now at the center of scrutiny, as French officials seek to determine how the event passed through multiple layers of planning without detection.

French authorities have charged the suspect with fraud, identity theft, and money laundering. Although he has not yet been formally indicted for crimes against a minor, he has been named an “assisted witness”—a French legal status one step below formal indictment—in the case examining child endangerment and potential exploitation.

Meanwhile, British authorities are liaising with French counterparts about possible extradition proceedings, though no official timeline has been disclosed.

As The New York Times report indicated, this case is a grim reminder of the ongoing threat posed by serial offenders who manipulate systems to exploit minors. The shocking Disneyland Paris incident is now likely to catalyze stricter policies across the entertainment and hospitality industries, particularly concerning private bookings and identity verification.

For now, the priority remains safeguarding the young victim, understanding how the scheme was allowed to proceed, and ensuring that such a lapse is never repeated—whether in Paris or anywhere else.