Paris, June 25 — A 39-year-old British man, reportedly a convicted sex offender wanted by UK authorities, has been charged in France in connection with the organisation of a bizarre and disturbing “mock wedding” involving a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl at Disneyland Paris.
French prosecutors said the man, whose identity has not been made public, was arrested at dawn on Saturday after a guest at the amusement park alerted police.
The guest, hired to play the bride’s father, told authorities he had been paid €12,000 and only discovered at the last minute that the “bride” was a child.
According to Meaux prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier, preliminary findings show that the girl had not been subjected to physical or sexual violence and had not been coerced into participating in the staged ceremony. However, the incident has sparked widespread concern and revulsion in both France and the UK.
Witnesses described a deeply unsettling scene. One woman hired to play a wedding guest told French broadcaster BFMTV, “When I saw [it was a] child – it was horrific. A little girl dressed in white, with her hair all done up, being carried in someone’s arms… I burst into tears.”
Authorities say the man had gone to great lengths to organise the event, reportedly spending over €130,000 to rent a private area of Disneyland Paris for several hours outside regular operating times. Prosecutors revealed that he used a fake Latvian ID to secure the venue, deceiving the park’s management about the nature of the event.
He also allegedly underwent professional makeup procedures to alter his appearance entirely. He was to play the role of the groom in the ceremony, which was to be filmed for personal use.
Three others were initially detained: the child’s 41-year-old mother, a 24-year-old Latvian woman hired to play the bride’s sister, and a 55-year-old Latvian man. All have since been released, with only the British man remaining in custody.
The Latvian woman appeared in court alongside the British suspect on June 23 in Meaux. While the man was formally charged with multiple offences — including fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft — the woman has been treated as a witness in the ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors further revealed that the suspect is listed in the UK’s sex offender registry and is currently wanted by British judicial authorities for breaching the conditions of his sexual offences order. He has now been placed in pretrial detention in France, pending further investigation and possible extradition proceedings.
Disneyland Paris has not issued a formal statement, but French authorities confirmed that the amusement park had been “deceived” by the organiser’s use of falsified documents.
As the investigation continues, key questions remain unanswered — chiefly, the man’s motivation for orchestrating the troubling event and how he managed to involve the child and others without raising alarms earlier.
The case has prompted renewed scrutiny over cross-border enforcement of sexual offender regulations and child protection protocols.
