A British man arrested in France for allegedly trying to marry a nine-year-old girl at Disneyland Paris is London paedophile Jaskarn Jhaj, according to prosecutors.
Jhaj, 39, also known as “Jacky”, was on Tuesday charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering and identity theft.
Park staff were shocked to see him with a Ukrainian child, along with her family and around 100 guests, on Saturday as they turned up for a “pretend wedding ceremony”.
Now, prosecutors in Meaux, east of Paris, have confirmed Jhaj was known in Britain “for sexual offences against minors” and is on the run.
Jhaj, who has a weird track record of elaborate and bad taste hoaxes, was jailed for four years in 2016 for grooming and sexually assaulting two 15-year-old schoolgirls.
He lured them to parties by pretending to be a top Hollywood film producer before plying them with alcohol.
Last year, Jhaj organised a mysterious fake funeral with an empty coffin, even hiring extras as mourners at the famous London Oratory in Brompton Road, Knightsbridge.
The sex offender was also behind a similarly bizarre event in 2023 when a fake red carpet scene was shot in London's West End with 90 children and dozens more teenage extras hired to provide a crowd for the filming.
A statement from French prosecutors read: “He is registered on the British sex offenders register and is currently wanted at the national level by the judicial authorities of his country of origin, for failing to comply with the obligations arising from said registration.”
Despite his background, Disneyland management allowed him to privatise part of the site at Marne-la-Vallée at a cost of around £115,000.
It then emerged that the “bride” was a nine-year-old girl – something that employees only realised on the day, according to prosecutors.
In addition to Jhaj, three other people were arrested – the child’s mother, a 41-year-old Ukrainian woman, a 24-year-old Latvian woman who played the role of the bride’s sister, and finally, a 55-year-old Latvian man who also took part in the “ceremony”.
The entire event was due to be broadcast live on social media, according to prosecutors, with “extras” recruited online to play family.
Despite this, organisers asked Disneyland to keep the whole event “confidential”.
In 2024, Jhaj was filmed naked in Silvertown, east London as he blew up a fake police van, sending its roof 50ft into the air.
He was recording for a production dubbed Project Dover which also involved a van with BBC World branding being set alight.
Senior management now claims to have been “deceived’” with a Meaux prosecuting spokesman saying: “The organiser assumed the identity of a Latvian national and used false documents to secure the conclusion of the contract for the privatization of the park.”
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.
A Disneyland Paris source said that the event was “soon shut down” and that guests were stopped from entering the premises.
A medical examination of the young girl “bride” found that she had not suffered any violence.
A source who was recruited to act as a “wedding guest” said: “We all thought we were going to attend a wedding.
“Everyone was stunned when we realised what was really going on. Disneyland acted extremely professionally – they canceled everything as soon as they realised the bride was a child. It was all very shocking.”
