Latest news with #fakewedding
The Sun
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
‘Father' paid to give away girl, 9, at fake Disneyland wedding to Brit paedo reveals incredible mission to raise alarm
A MAN hired to play the role of a bride's father has revealed how he stopped a convicted Brit paedophile from "marrying" a nine-year-old girl in a fake Disneyland wedding. Vitalijs, a former Russian special forces paratrooper, raised the alarm on Londoner Jacky Jhaj, 39, who was set to "marry" the Ukrainian schoolgirl in a fake £111,000 ceremony. 7 7 Jhaj – previously jailed in the UK for child sex offences – was arrested and remains in custody in France after being charged with a series of criminal offences. The sex offender was allegedly the "groom" in a twisted mock wedding ceremony in which the nine-year-old girl was meant to act as his "bride". The bizarre wedding was played out before 100 guests at Disneyland Paris' Sleeping Beauty Castle. Vitalijs, who only uses his first name for security reasons, revealed he was offered the equivalent of £550 to play "the father of the bride". He was first told he would be giving away the girl's 41-year-old mother. But when he realised the "bride" was instead an underage girl, he immediately refused to be a part of the bizarre act- and plotted a plan to take down the fake wedding. Vitalijs, who said he served as a paratrooper in the Red Army before the collapse of the old Soviet Union, added: "I knew I had to do something." On the morning of the wedding, the 54-year-old Latvian broke into the Paris Disneyland without a pass and raised the alarm on the fake wedding. Vitalijs, who does not speak French or English, said his special forces training to get in and carried a note with him. It read: "This is not a real wedding. The girl is nine years old!" Dramatic footage shows riot cops clashing with furious locals as suspected sex offender is bundled into van by officers Vitalijs said he approached the wedding stage and handed the note to Disney staff, who saw a "scared and confused" child in a big dress with four-inch heels taped to her feet. They then ensured the wedding was stopped immediately. French cops arrived within minutes, and several suspects, including Jhaj, were arrested and taken into custody. Vitalijs was driven to a police station, where he was shown a fake British passport with his photo on it. Vitalijs said: "I found out that my passport had been forged. I only remember the first name, Mikhail. I don't remember the surname. "I remembered that a woman in Riga [Latvia] had asked me for a passport photo for a pass to Disneyland. "Of course, I told the police that it wasn't me and that it wasn't my passport." 7 7 7 Vitalijs was released without charge, as was the Ukrainian mother and her child. He said he had got to know the pair after meeting them at a casting session for the Disneyland stunt in the Czech Republic in May. The mum told him she had known Jhaj for a year, even took her daughter on a holiday with the sex offender while also accepting cash from him. Jhaj has been described as the "mastermind" behind the sick stunt. After his arrest, the convicted paedophile told the examining magistrates in Meaux: "I'm just a simple actor who took part in a film shoot". His lawyer, Jean-Christophe Ramadier, said Jhaj was solely placed in "provisional custody" because "he had no guarantee of legal representation in France, where he has no address". In 2016, Jhaj was found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in Britain. Jean-Baptiste Bladier, the Meaux prosecutor, confirmed the Ukrainian child had not suffered "any violence, neither physical nor sexual" and had "not been forced into playing the bride". Mr Bladier said Jhaj "played the role of the groom after having been professionally made up to display a face completely different from his own" The investigation into the fake wedding continues. 7
Telegraph
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Disneyland paedophile ‘took nine-year-old bride's mother on holiday'
A convicted British paedophile allegedly took the nine-year-old girl he was due to 'marry' in Disneyland Paris on holiday with her mother the year before their fake ceremony. Jacky Jhaj, 39, who was described in a previous court case as a 'dangerous sexual predator', was arrested at the fake wedding, which took place at dawn on June 21 at the resort for a reported cost of €130,000 (£111,140). An actor hired to play the 'father' of the 'bride' told The Telegraph that Jhaj had known the girl and her mother for a year and that the three of them had gone on holiday together. 'This Ukrainian woman [the mother] told me that she had known this Jacky for a year. A year. He paid her money and helped her family,' said Vitalijs, 54, who declined to give his surname for 'security reasons'. 'They went somewhere together to relax, the three of them. I think he won her over with gifts. And if, as the girl's mother told me at the airport, they were on holiday together, the three of them,' he added. Police were called to the theme park after staff were alerted to the fact the 'bride', a Ukrainian national wearing a wedding dress and reportedly tottering on high heels, was a young child. Jhaj, who rented the resort outside of its opening hours for the fake wedding, was remanded in custody and charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering and identity theft. He has also been placed under assisted witness status for corruption of a minor. The child and her 41-year-old mother were released without charge. 'Father of bride' says he foiled plot Vitalijs, who told The Telegraph he was a former Soviet special forces sergeant, claimed he had foiled the plot. 'I know how to recognise threats and act in critical situations. I have special military training. This time, I couldn't stay silent,' he said, adding that he had been 'in a separate special forces unit of the GRU airborne troops' just before the fall of the Soviet Union. He said Jhaj told him the 'bride' would be played by the nine-year-old's mother, who he met a month before at a casting for the event in Brno, in the Czech Republic. Vitalijs said: 'I was paid €150 for the casting. They promised to pay €500 for one hour of filming in Paris,' he said. Previous reports had suggested he had been offered a far higher sum. He was only informed that the 'bride' was in fact the child and not the mother 'five hours before the ceremony', when he pulled out and was banned from attending by Jhaj. However, he went to Disneyland to inform management of the involvement of a minor. 'I knew I had to act. I snuck into Disneyland without a pass. One of the employees accompanied me. I had a handwritten note with me that said: 'This is not a real wedding. The girl is nine years old!' 'I approached the could see that the ceremony was taking place on the second floor. 'I entered the first floor and saw… a Disneyland employee who had been present at the online meeting. I immediately handed her the note. The [fake] wedding was stopped immediately.' Vitalijs said when he went to the police station, officers showed him a British passport with his photo on it. 'I found out that my passport had been forged. I only remember the first name, Mikhail. I don't remember the surname. 'I remembered that this girl in Riga had asked me for a passport photo 'for a pass to Disneyland',' he said, referring to another event organiser. 'Of course, I [told the police] that it wasn't me and that it wasn't my passport.' After the foiled event, he said he met the mother and the child at the police station when all three were released without charge. They travelled to the airport together, where she told him she had known Jhaj for a year and that she had been on holiday with him. Vitalijs said that after his service in Soviet special forces, he went on to train in London to become an 'international bodyguard' and was employed to protect several French film stars, including Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The mystery of the paedophile who hired out Disneyland
When it emerged that last weekend a convicted paedophile had organised a fake wedding to a nine-year-old at Disneyland Paris, many people were perplexed. Who would do such a thing? How was it even possible? The BBC understands it was the latest bizarre stunt by Jacky Jhaj – a British man I have been investigating for two years. He first came to my attention after a tip off from a teenage girl came out of the blue in 2023. She was horrified that she had come face to face with a paedophile who she had been hired to fawn over. She was too terrified of him to go on the record - but I tracked down a number of aspiring actors who had also been directed to scream at Jhaj while he was parading down a red carpet, and reach out to try and touch him. In all, 200 children and young women had been recruited by reputable casting agencies to play Jhaj's fans at a fake film premiere in London's Leicester Square that year. Some were as young as six. Towards the end of the event someone recognised Jhaj - who had previously been found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in 2016 and sent to prison. The fake red carpet was one of a litany of stunts he has organised since his release which often involve casting girls as his fans. All have been organised at great expense, while he was on the Sex Offenders Register and subject to restrictions on his activities. For the mock-wedding at Disneyland Paris a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl was flown in to play his bride. The theme park can be privately rented outside of its opening hours and actors had been booked at great cost to be there – one received £10,000. The BBC understands that Jacky Jhaj, 39, who is from west London, has now been charged by French authorities in connection with organising the event. Over the past two years I've set out to try and understand how he has been able to carry out these stunts and why there are not more stringent rules preventing them. Many have taken place at high profile British landmarks – including the British Museum, the Royal Exchange in London and the University of Oxford. They also typically involve young people being hired to act as his fans in elaborate productions. Videos of some of them were uploaded to a YouTube channel which was watched more than six million times and had 12 million subscribers. Many remained on YouTube for years until last September, when the BBC alerted Google, which owns the platform. A video on a separate channel showed him next to one of the victims he was convicted of sexual activity with – with her face anonymised. It had remained on YouTube for four years with more than a million views. Google told the BBC at the time that it takes users' safety seriously but offered no explanation as to how an account featuring a man with almost no profile or success had 12 million subscribers, or why the videos had not been previously removed. Clips on social media sites appear to cast Jhaj as a successful writer and singer and are often styled as music videos. Many are highly concerning - some feature him posing with young children and weapons. It is not clear if the guns are real or fake. Others revel in his infamy. In one, he is greeted by fans apparently celebrating his release from Wormwood Scrubs prison. I wanted to know how he had organised the stunts – and if he had received help. Over the past two years, I have spoken to videographers, production assistants and technicians who were hired for some of the events before they discovered Jhaj's real identity. One man repeatedly appears in videos they shared with me. We have been sent images and footage of him at three of the stunts by people who described him as assisting the choreographer hired for dance auditions, and apparently filming. At a different event last year, he was confronted by duped cast members who recognised Jhaj from our reports and showed him the online article. The cast members filmed him acknowledging that Jhaj is a convicted sex offender but he says he is his "friend" and is now "free". At this event Jhaj was filmed posing naked in front of a mocked-up BBC News lorry in London which had been set on fire. Jhaj had initially appeared there disguised by prosthetics – before he removed them and was identified as the man from our story. Preliminary findings from the French prosecutor also said that make-up artists had allegedly changed the organiser's facial features dramatically at the Disneyland event. How Jhaj funds his stunts - which involve extraordinary costs on venue hire, casts and props - is a mystery. One production hired a tank, while in another a mock police car was set on fire. The booking of Disneyland Paris alone would have cost more than €130,000 (£110,000), according to the French broadcaster BFMTV. I was also told that hiring the red carpet space that is the home of movie premieres in Leicester Square would have required tens of thousands of pounds. Jhaj was listed as a director of a business that was wound up in 2016 – but there is no other obvious source of money. I also wanted to know how he had been able to carry out these events while subject to a sexual harm prevention order. We have seen a copy of it. It lists ten restrictions on his activities – but does not appear to explicitly prohibit the stunts he had organised. The order restricts Jhaj from contacting his previous victims, entering public places for the use of children and deliberately contacting any girl under the age of 16. However, there is no blanket ban on hosting events with children under 16 if they are supervised – as was the case with the Leicester Square stunt, where some adults attended as chaperones. I also wanted to know who, if anyone, was responsible for monitoring convicted paedophiles. Following my first report, a police officer who helped monitor Jhaj rang me, asking for information on his movements. He said he was responsible for managing the whereabouts of dozens of offenders - and it was challenging work. The National Police Chiefs' Council advise that the minimum safe staffing levels at which paedophiles should be monitored is one officer to every 50 offenders. The Metropolitan Police's average offender management ratio was one officer to 40 offenders – well within the benchmark. I asked other forces what their ratios were and some never replied. But 10 out of 26 forces failed to meet this benchmark, according to Freedom of Information requests received last year. At one force, officers were responsible for monitoring 85 offenders each on average. Some forces defended their resourcing – arguing that these are advisory levels only and also dependent on risk assessments of offenders. But successfully managing 50 sex offenders is "impossible" according to Jonathan Taylor, a safeguarding expert and former child abuse investigator. "I feel so sorry for the officers", he says. "It's a poisoned chalice - one of the paedophiles will re-offend. This case also highlights concerns about a lack of safeguarding in entertainment and tech companies enabling these types of offenders." The BBC understands that Jhaj is currently detained in French custody. The local prosecutor there says the Ukrainian girl involved in Saturday's stunt had not been a victim of either physical or sexual violence and had not been forced to play the role of a bride. His statement also said Disneyland Paris had been "deceived" and that the organiser had used a fake Latvian ID to hire the venue. The BBC approached Disneyland Paris for comment - they did not respond. The Metropolitan Police said that a 39-year-old man is wanted by them for breaching restrictions placed on his activities, and is also separately being investigated for "any possible" fraud offences. Additional reporting by Alex Dackevych and Richard Irvine-Brown.
BBC News
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Jacky Jhaj: How was a paedophile able to hire Disneyland?
When it emerged that last weekend a convicted paedophile had organised a fake wedding to a nine-year-old at Disneyland Paris, many people were would do such a thing? How was it even possible? The BBC understands it was the latest bizarre stunt by Jacky Jhaj – a British man I have been investigating for two first came to my attention after a tip off from a teenage girl came out of the blue in was horrified that she had come face to face with a paedophile who she had been hired to fawn was too terrified of him to go on the record - but I tracked down a number of aspiring actors who had also been directed to scream at Jhaj while he was parading down a red carpet, and reach out to try and touch him. In all, 200 children and young women had been recruited by reputable casting agencies to play Jhaj's fans at a fake film premiere in London's Leicester Square that year. Some were as young as the end of the event someone recognised Jhaj - who had previously been found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in 2016 and sent to fake red carpet was one of a litany of stunts he has organised since his release which often involve casting girls as his fans. All have been organised at great expense, while he was on the Sex Offenders Register and subject to restrictions on his the mock-wedding at Disneyland Paris a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl was flown in to play his theme park can be privately rented outside of its opening hours and actors had been booked at great cost to be there – one received £10, BBC understands that Jacky Jhaj, 39, who is from west London, has now been charged by French authorities in connection with organising the the past two years I've set out to try and understand how he has been able to carry out these stunts and why there are not more stringent rules preventing have taken place at high profile British landmarks – including the British Museum, the Royal Exchange in London and the University of also typically involve young people being hired to act as his fans in elaborate productions. Videos of some of them were uploaded to a YouTube channel which was watched more than six million times and had 12 million remained on YouTube for years until last September, when the BBC alerted Google, which owns the platform.A video on a separate channel showed him next to one of the victims he was convicted of sexual activity with – with her face anonymised. It had remained on YouTube for four years with more than a million told the BBC at the time that it takes users' safety seriously but offered no explanation as to how an account featuring a man with almost no profile or success had 12 million subscribers, or why the videos had not been previously on social media sites appear to cast Jhaj as a successful writer and singer and are often styled as music videos. Many are highly concerning - some feature him posing with young children and weapons. It is not clear if the guns are real or revel in his infamy. In one, he is greeted by fans apparently celebrating his release from Wormwood Scrubs prison.I wanted to know how he had organised the stunts – and if he had received help. What else do we know? Over the past two years, I have spoken to videographers, production assistants and technicians who were hired for some of the events before they discovered Jhaj's real man repeatedly appears in videos they shared with have been sent images and footage of him at three of the stunts by people who described him as assisting the choreographer hired for dance auditions, and apparently filming. At a different event last year, he was confronted by duped cast members who recognised Jhaj from our reports and showed him the online cast members filmed him acknowledging that Jhaj is a convicted sex offender but he says he is his "friend" and is now "free".At this event Jhaj was filmed posing naked in front of a mocked-up BBC News lorry in London which had been set on had initially appeared there disguised by prosthetics – before he removed them and was identified as the man from our findings from the French prosecutor also said that make-up artists had allegedly changed the organiser's facial features dramatically at the Disneyland event. How Jhaj funds his stunts - which involve extraordinary costs on venue hire, casts and props - is a production hired a tank, while in another a mock police car was set on booking of Disneyland Paris alone would have cost more than €130,000 (£110,000), according to the French broadcaster BFMTV.I was also told that hiring the red carpet space that is the home of movie premieres in Leicester Square would have required tens of thousands of was listed as a director of a business that was wound up in 2016 – but there is no other obvious source of money.I also wanted to know how he had been able to carry out these events while subject to a sexual harm prevention have seen a copy of it. It lists ten restrictions on his activities – but does not appear to explicitly prohibit the stunts he had order restricts Jhaj from contacting his previous victims, entering public places for the use of children and deliberately contacting any girl under the age of there is no blanket ban on hosting events with children under 16 if they are supervised – as was the case with the Leicester Square stunt, where some adults attended as chaperones. One police officer to 50 offenders I also wanted to know who, if anyone, was responsible for monitoring convicted my first report, a police officer who helped monitor Jhaj rang me, asking for information on his said he was responsible for managing the whereabouts of dozens of offenders - and it was challenging National Police Chiefs' Council advise that the minimum safe staffing levels at which paedophiles should be monitored is one officer to every 50 Metropolitan Police's average offender management ratio was one officer to 40 offenders – well within the benchmark.I asked other forces what their ratios were and some never replied. But 10 out of 26 forces failed to meet this benchmark, according to Freedom of Information requests received last one force, officers were responsible for monitoring 85 offenders each on forces defended their resourcing – arguing that these are advisory levels only and also dependent on risk assessments of successfully managing 50 sex offenders is "impossible" according to Jonathan Taylor, a safeguarding expert and former child abuse investigator."I feel so sorry for the officers", he says. "It's a poisoned chalice - one of the paedophiles will re-offend. This case also highlights concerns about a lack of safeguarding in entertainment and tech companies enabling these types of offenders."The BBC understands that Jhaj is currently detained in French custody. The local prosecutor there says the Ukrainian girl involved in Saturday's stunt had not been a victim of either physical or sexual violence and had not been forced to play the role of a statement also said Disneyland Paris had been "deceived" and that the organiser had used a fake Latvian ID to hire the BBC approached Disneyland Paris for comment - they did not Metropolitan Police said that a 39-year-old man is wanted by them for breaching restrictions placed on his activities, and is also separately being investigated for "any possible" fraud reporting by Alex Dackevych and Richard Irvine-Brown.
Daily Mail
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Revealed: The ad to rope in children for British paedo's 'fake Disneyland wedding' - where kids as young as five were offered 200 euros to take part
The disturbing advert used to rope in children for a convicted British paedophile's fake wedding to a nine-year-old girl at Disneyland Paris has been revealed. Londoner Jaskarn or 'Jacky' Jhaj, 39, was arrested after paying £111,000 to stage the vile fake event at the fairlytale Sleeping Beauty castle, featuring musicians, a cake and chairs for hundreds of 'guests'. Fantasist Jhaj, who has a track record of elaborate, bad-taste hoaxes, was jailed for four years in 2016 for grooming and sexually assaulting two 15-year-old schoolgirls, MailOnline previously revealed. Now, a bizarre Facebook advert offering children as young as five 200 euros to take part in the Disneyland stunt has come to light, calling for 100 kids to attend the 'high-end wedding rehearsal'. The ad explicitly states that guests must maintain 'absolute confidentiality', and would have to 'stand up, sit, applaud and play their part in this prestigious gathering'. It was posted by a woman named Christelle Ka, who bills herself as 'actor and TV host' and runs firm Cristal Communications. Her link to Jhaj remains unclear. The offer included a private bus service to take 'guests' from the centre of Paris to the event. Those who attended were required to wear a 'very elegant evening outfit', such as a 'suit, evening dress or tuxedo', according to the ad. The disturbing advert used to rope in children for a convicted British paedophile's fake wedding to a nine-year-old girl at Disneyland Paris has been revealed Jhaj has been charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering and identity theft, French prosecutors said last night. Posing as the 22-year-old 'groom', Jhaj hired professional make-up artists to disguise his appearance, according to police sources in Paris. Jhaj was jailed for four years in 2016 for grooming and sexually assaulting two 15-year-old schoolgirls, MailOnline revealed last night. He lured them to parties by pretending to be a top Hollywood film producer and plying them with alcohol. Last year, he 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. Child actors as young as six were recruited as extras dressed in school uniforms and asked to pretend to faint as Jhaj paraded up and down wearing a red tuxedo as if he were a film star at a premier outside the Odeon Luxe cinema in Leicester Square. He was arrested following the phony movie premiere on suspicion of breaching a sexual harm prevention order and was released on bail. Jhaj, who poses as a film producer, was subsequently fined £1,500 at Isleworth Crown Court last July for breaching notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order. The source of funding for his expensive set-ups is a mystery.
