South Asian-origin Brit named as man arrested at Disneyland Paris for mock wedding to 9-year-old

LONDON: A South Asian-origin British national called Jacky Jhaj has been named by UK media as the man arrested in Disneyland Paris last weekend for organising a mock wedding to a 9-year-old Ukrainian girl.

Jaskarn, or Jacky Jhaj (39), was arrested last Saturday at the theme park when a 55-year-old actor who had been paid €12,000 to play the role of the father of the bride contacted police when he realised the bride was a child and she turned up looking “scared and confused”.

Jhaj is a convicted paedophile in Britain. He was jailed in 2016 for sexual activity with two 15-year-old girls and placed on the UK sex offenders register.

Around 100 children and 200 adults had been paid to take part in the fake ceremony at the Sleeping Beauty castle. The mock wedding was to feature violinists, a cake, and chairs were laid out. TOI understands the plan was to create a video for social media.

Jhaj had hired Disneyland Paris for several hours before it opened for the stunt, costing £110,000, allegedly using fake Latvian ID. He was going to play the role of groom to the child bride who could not walk in her bridal dress and heels and had to be carried.

The 41-year-old Ukrainian mother of the girl, a 24-year-old Latvian woman who was to play the bride’s sister, and the 55-year-old Latvian man acting as the groom were also arrested and have since been released.

Jhaj appeared in front of a judge in Meaux, north-east Paris, on June 23 and was charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft. He remains in custody.

He is a serial prankster behind scores of similar weird stunts. He hired hundreds of teenagers and children, some as young as six, to act as his fawning fans at a fake red carpet film premiere in Leicester Square in 2023 at which he pretended to be a film star, and last year he organised a fake funeral at London Oratory with a horse-drawn carriage and empty coffin, hiring extras as mourners.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “A 39-year-old man is wanted by the Met Police for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a breach of a Sex Offenders’ Register notification requirement. We are aware the man has been arrested in France for other matters and officers are in contact with the French authorities.”