A British man arrested at Disneyland Paris for allegedly trying to stage a mock wedding with a child bride has been named.
Paedophile Jacky Jhaj, 39, appeared at a French court on Monday charged in connection with the disturbing ceremony at the theme park on Saturday.
Jhaj is well-known to UK police and was placed on the sex offenders register in 2016 after being found guilty of sexual activity with two underage girls in Feltham, West London.
Reports suggest that around £110,000 was paid to hire Disneyland Paris for the private wedding event before the park opened to members of the public.
Le Parisien, which first broke the story, said park staff alerted authorities when they saw the child playing the role of the bride appearing in high heels, barely able to stand.
The BBC reported that the event was to be filmed by Jhaj’s team with around 100 French extras recruited to take part.
Following Jhaj’s arrest, the BBC reported that he appeared before a judge in Meaux, Paris, charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft.
Prosecutors said the girl is a Ukrainian national who had arrived in France with her 41-year-old mother two days prior to the mock ceremony.
Three other people were arrested on Saturday – including the girl’s mother, a 24-year-old Latvian woman who played the sister of the bride, and the 55-year-old Latvian man hired to play the “father of the bride”, the tribunal in Meaux Jean-Baptiste Bladier said.
Disneyland Paris was “deceived” after the identity of a Latvian man and fake identification documents were used to secure the private event at the park, and that about a hundred hired extras were falsely presented to the company as wedding guests.
Preliminary findings also stated the “groom” had allegedly been “made-up professionally so that his face appeared totally different from his own”, according to the prosecutor.
French prosecutors said on Tuesday they have been in touch with British authorities and identified the convicted sexual offender who is wanted in the UK.
Since Jhaj was registered on the sex offenders list in 2016, he has been accused of holding staged productions involving young people, according to a BBC investigation.
In 2023, the corporation alleged he hired hundreds of children to act as fans at a fake film premiere in London.
In a statement, 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."
The Independent has contacted the courthouse in Paris and Disneyland Paris.
