A British 22-year-old man was arrested at Disneyland Paris after allegedly attempting to stage a ceremony of a fake wedding to a 9-year-old girl.
He had set the ceremony for Saturday
According to The Sunday Times, the man had scheduled the fake ceremony to take place the morning of Saturday, June 21.
He was allegedly the ‘groom’ of the ceremony which was set to happen in front of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty castle.
He claims he wanted to make a video
The outlet reported that the 22-year-old man told police that his goal was to make a video for social media.
Authorities were alerted about a potential issue after Disneyland Paris staff initially noticed that the bride at a pre-scheduled wedding appeared shockingly young.
The ‘guests’ were hired actors
The news outlet further reported that authorities discovered that the people who were invited to be ‘guests’ at the wedding were hired actors.
They were bused into the park prior to the ceremony and weren’t given much detail about what was scheduled to take place.
RELATED STORIES
The child wasn’t harmed
Assistant prosecutor for the Seine-et-Marne département, Alexandre Verney, told the outlet that the child received a medical examination and it was determined that she was unharmed.
Four people were arrested in connection with the incident, according to Verney.
The man, the girl’s mother, and two others were arrested
Those arrested in relation to the incident were the British ‘groom’, the child’s mother, who is a 41-year-old Ukranian woman, and two Latvian nationals aged 24 and 55.
Two have since been released
The girl’s mother and the 55-year-old Latvian have since been released from custody, as per the prosecutor’s office.
But, the outlet reports, the British man and the 24-year-old Latvian are still being held over potential financial fraud.
Witnesses at the park spoke about the incident
Speaking to the French outlet Le Parisien, witnesses at Disneyland Paris said they were “shocked” when they first noticed that the bride of the scheduled ceremony was a child.
“We all thought we were going to attend a wedding,” one person shared. “Everyone was stunned, no one expected it.”
“Disneyland did things very well,” the witness added. “They canceled everything as soon as they realized the bride was a child. We were shocked to see that.”