A British man has been arrested at Disneyland Paris after allegedly attempting to stage a mock wedding with 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.
However, police were called after staff realised that the bride, who was wearing a wedding dress, appeared to be a young child.
Four people have been arrested and taken into custody, including the girl’s mother, a 41-year-old Ukrainian woman. Two are still being questioned on suspicion of money-laundering and fraud, while the supposed groom, a 22-year-old British man, is thought to have organised the event.
Alexandre Verney, assistant prosecutor for the Seine-et-Marne département, 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 wasn’t a wedding but a staged wedding that was to be filmed with a hundred extras. They had privately hired Disneyland, claiming that it was a real marriage.”
The prosecutor’s office said that the young girl, who is Ukrainian, was not found to have suffered any “violence or constraint”.
The extras were hired online to be guests, which had been advertised as a “rehearsal” for a wedding in Disneyland. The advert had sought to find 200 adults and 100 children aged between five and 15.
A witness told French newspaper 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.”
