A British man was arrested for allegedly attempting to stage a fake wedding for a 9-year-old girl at Disneyland Paris.
According to The Sunday Times, the 22-year-old man was allegedly the “groom” in a staged ceremony scheduled for Saturday morning, June 21, in front of the park’s Sleeping Beauty castle. According to the outlet, he told police that his ultimate goal was to create a social media video.
According to The Sunday Times, Disneyland Paris staff noticed that the bride at a pre-scheduled wedding appeared alarmingly young, which alerted authorities to a potential issue.
The outlet also reported that authorities discovered that the wedding “guests” were hired actors who were bused into the park for the event and given little information about what was going to happen.
According to Alexandre Verney, assistant prosecutor for the département of Seine-et-Marne, the child underwent a medical examination and was found to be in good health. Verney told the outlet that four people were arrested in connection with the incident: the British “groom,” the child’s mother (a 41-year-old Ukrainian woman), and two Latvian nationals (ages 24 and 55).
According to the prosecutor’s office, the child’s mother and the 55-year-old Latvian have been released from custody, while the British man and the 24-year-old Latvian are still being held on suspicion of financial fraud.
Witnesses told French outlet Le Parisien that they were “shocked” when they discovered the bride was a child.
“We all thought we were going to a wedding,” one person explained. “Everyone was stunned, no one expected it.”
“Disneyland did things very well,” the man said. “They canceled everything the moment they discovered the bride was a child. “We were shocked to see that.”
PEOPLE contacted Disneyland Paris and the Chessy National Police for comment on Sunday, June 22, but did not receive an immediate response.
