A British sex offender accused of staging a mock wedding with a child at Disneyland Paris has been charged with money-laundering and fraud offences in France.
Jacky Jhaj, 39, who in 2016 was found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds, was arrested this weekend at Disneyland Paris after the theme park was hired for a private wedding. Staff are said to have called police when they saw that the “bride” in a wedding dress was a nine-year-old girl.
Jhaj, who prosecutors said was playing the role of the groom in the mock wedding, has been charged by an investigative judge in Meaux with offences including money laundering and identity theft. The nine-year-old girl, who is Ukrainian, was not harmed, police said.
Jhaj was identified as the arrested man by the BBC, which has previously published investigations into him. French police and prosecutors have not named him, though prosecutors said the charged man had a criminal record in the UK for sexual assault offences.
Jhaj is accused of organising a bizarre mock marriage ceremony that included an orchestra, a giant cake and a backdrop of a Disney castle. He had organised for more than 100 paid extras to be bussed from Paris. They believed they were playing the role of guests in a real wedding scenario.
The French court also opened an investigation into the suspected corruption of a minor, designating the man as an “assisted witness” – a step before being indicted.
Disneyland Paris is Europe’s most-visited theme park and can be hired for weddings outside opening hours at a very high price, with its Sleeping Beauty castle as a backdrop. The event had been scheduled to take place between 5am and 7am on Saturday for a price of about €130,000 (£111,000).
The French state prosecutor in Meaux, Jean-Baptiste Bladier, said the British man played “the role of the groom after being professionally made up to display a face completely different from his own”.
Bladier said French judicial authorities were informed by British police that the man “has been convicted in the past, notably for sexual offences against minors”.
The Metropolitan police in London said a 39-year-old man was wanted for breaching a sexual harm prevention order and a breach of a sex offender register notification requirement. In a statement, the force said: “We are aware the man has been arrested in France for other matters and officers are in contact with the French authorities.”
PA Media reported that the man was placed under supervision after being convicted of sexual activity with two 15-year-old girls in 2016.
The French prosecutor said investigations had showed that the Disneyland “marriage” was in fact “a fictitious ceremony intended to be filmed privately”.
The prosecutor’s office designated a 24-year-old Latvian woman, who played the role of the bride’s sister at the event, as an assisted witness in the investigation.
The British man is suspected of “recruiting, with the help of a Latvian citizen, other Latvian nationals to ensure the smooth running of the event, as well as about 100 French extras, who were falsely presented to Disneyland Paris as wedding guests”, the prosecutor said.
The Ukrainian child, who arrived in France two days before the event, suffered “no violence, either physical or sexual” and “was not forced to play the role” of bride, the prosecutor said at the weekend.
According to the prosecutor, Disneyland Paris was deceived, with “the organiser impersonating a Latvian national and using false documents to secure the contract to hire the park”.
Disneyland Paris has filed a legal complaint.
