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.
Getty – ContributorJacky Jhaj is a convicted paedophile who was jailed for four years in 2016[/caption]
GETTY IMAGESJhaj was allegedly the ‘groom’ in a mock wedding ceremony with a child at Disneyland Paris[/caption]
Peter AllenVitalijs, a former Russian special forces paratrooper, raised the alarm on Londoner Jacky Jhaj[/caption]
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 theme park 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!”
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.”
Instagram/bfmtvA bracelet given to guests at the fake ceremony showed the name ‘Jack’ as the pretend husband on behalf of paedophile Jacky[/caption]
revistacrescer.globo.comGuests at the twisted mock ‘wedding rehearsal’ in front of Disneyland Paris’ Sleeping Beauty castle[/caption]
Footage showed the mock wedding rehearsal
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.
Who is Jacky Jhaj?
CONVICTED paedophile Jacky Jhaj, 39, has been previously jailed in the UK for child sex offences.
He was on the run from British authorities at the time of the sick wedding stunt, French prosecutors say.
The disgraced director and actor, from Feltham, was jailed in 2016 for four years after being found guilty on four counts of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds.
Before his arrest, he drove around the streets of Hounslow, offering girls alcohol and claiming to be a Hollywood film producer.
But the convicted paedophile has pulled a string of bizarre stunts since being released from jail.
In September 2024, Jhaj staged an explosion using an old BBC truck and Union Jack-draped vehicles packed with explosives, filming himself naked as the blaze spiralled out of control behind him.
The incident was reported to be a film production stunt.
But it triggered panic, with hundreds of calls flooding emergency services as locals feared a terrorist attack.
Residents were not warned beforehand and only found out afterwards through a post on the Borough of Greenwich’s official Facebook page.
A year before the explosion, footage surfaced of Jhaj mixing with around 200 children and 100 young women at a film shoot in London’s Leicester Square.
The shoot, which shows some of the children touching Jhaj, took place on October 17, 2023, the BBC revealed at the time.
The BBC reported that the organiser of the event – known as “Project BRT” – hired 90 children aged six to 14 from an agency called Jam 200
The production also booked around 100 young women between the ages of 16 to 24 from Uni-versal Extras.
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