Brit who tried to stage a fake wedding to nine-year-old at Disneyland Paris complains of violence in French jail after inmates torched his mattress - as he is denied bail
The British man who tried to stage a fake wedding to a nine-year-old at Disneyland Paris has complained of experiencing violence in French jail, accusing inmates of torching his mattress.
It comes as Jacky Jhaj was denied bail some four months after he was charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft and placed in pretrial detention.
The 40-year-old is a convicted paedophile who was found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in 2016 and has spent time in prison.
Since then, he has been involved in a string of bizarre social media stunts - with the fake wedding at Disneyland Paris being the most recent.
He was arrested in June after paying £111,000 to stage the fake event at the fairytale Sleeping Beauty castle, featuring musicians, a cake and chairs for hundreds of guests.
Police arrived at the scene after staff were alerted by a 'guest' who said he was paid £10,500 to play the father of the bride.
He only realised at the last minute that the bride was a child, according to a statement by Meaux prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier.
The girl was a Ukrainian minor who had arrived in France two days prior to the fake ceremony.
Londoner Jaskarn or 'Jacky' Jhaj, 40 (pictured), was arrested after paying £111,000 to stage the vile fake event at the fairytale Sleeping Beauty castle
Pictured: Footage of violinists playing for guests at a rehearsal for the alleged fake wedding
Disneyland management allowed the 'wedding' bookers to privatise part of the site at Marne-la-Vallée at a cost of around £115,000. Pictured: A man stands beside flowers at the event
Jhaj's lawyer tried to negotiate a £26,000 bail during which he'd be placed under judicial supervision, with the surrender of his passport and a provincial address, but the request was denied.
While the financial crimes for which Jhaj is being investigated did not permit for his pre-trial detention to be extended beyond October 23, his criminal history in England meant the judge requested an extension.
Jhaj is wanted by the Met Police for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a breach of a Sex Offenders' Register notification requirement.
He has been on the sex offenders list since 2016 when he was jailed for four years for grooming and sexually assaulting two 15-year-old schoolgirls.
He lured them to parties by pretending to be a top Hollywood film producer and plying them with alcohol, and also recorded secret footage of one of them which he uploaded to YouTube.
Authorities in France will carry out computer and mobile phone forensics as part of their investigation.
During a hearing at the Meaux judicial court, Jhaj's lawyer, Etienne Arnaud, requested a closed session, meaning no press were permitted entry.
The lawyer claimed that throughout Jhaj's four months at the Meaux-Chauconin prison, he had been the 'victim of violence' at the hands of other inmates, with some allegedly setting his mattress on fire.
The lawyer claimed that his client was seen by inmates as someone who has a lot of money and is 'under pressure'.
'On June 21, it was simply the filming of a movie. My client was one of the actors. He was in no way the organiser,' Arnaud said about the fake wedding, reported Le Parisien.
'And he wasn't the one financing the filming. We're trying to make up offenses that don't amount to anything.'
The hearing was suspended after an interpretation problem, when it was established that Jhaj could not speak French.
It continued via a video call where it was decided that Jhaj would return to detention for at least four more months.
The stunt in Disneyland Paris was just the latest in a series of strange, fake ceremonies Jhaj has staged over the years.
In his London funeral stunt, Jhaj reportedly paid over £10,000 to a funeral director for the service
A naked Jhaj walks in front of the flames after the planned explosion at one of his stunts
The sex offender was behind an 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
Jhaj, who has boasted on camera about being branded 'a dangerous sexual predator', was filmed naked in Silvertown, east London as he blew up a fake police van
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
A grab from Jacky Jhaj's 'film premiere' which starred child and teenage actors
In 2023, Jhaj organised a fake red carpet scene shot in London's Leicester Square, with 90 children and dozens more teenage extras hired to play a cheering crowd.
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.
Teenage girls told the BBC that they were told to scream his name and try to touch him, without being told his real identity.
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.
In another stunt 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.
He reportedly paid over £10,000 to a funeral director for the service.
The elaborate setup included a horse-drawn carriage, two luxury cars, and a full choir.
In another spectacle, Jhaj - who has boasted on camera about being branded 'a dangerous sexual predator' - was filmed naked in Silvertown, east London as he blew up a fake police van, sending its roof 50ft into the air.
He was shooting a scene for a production dubbed 'Project Dover' - which also involved a van with BBC World branding being set alight.
In the stunt, Jhaj was filmed at a typewriter surrounded by hundreds of newspapers on the floor before he flicked cigarettes at a police car, a police van and a BBC World News-branded lorry which all exploded into a huge blaze that terrified locals.
The serial prankster features in a two-hour online film uploaded in 2020 with the title 'Dangerous Sexual Predator' - appearing to refer to a description the police made of him when convicted four years earlier.
Questions remain how the convicted sex offender was able to privately hire part of the site at Marne-la-Vallée for the fake wedding in June.
Posing as the 22-year-old 'groom', Jhaj hired professional make-up artists to disguise his appearance, according to police sources in Paris.
Eerie footage from the fake wedding shows around 100 seated guests waiting for the ceremony to start as a female violin trio played at dawn before a stage strewn with flowers.
'Guests' were recruited online via adverts seeking 200 adults and 100 children aged between five and 15 to play the crowd at a 'chic and elegant rehearsal' for a wedding in Disneyland.
They were allegedly paid €200 each and had to 'enter the room, sit down, stand up, applaud and participate naturally and elegantly in this event filmed in a festive and classy atmosphere'.
Disneyland Paris told French newspaper Le Parisien the event was immediately shut down by its team and that guests were stopped from entering the premises.
French broadcaster BFM shared the bizarre footage as well as an image of a pink ribbon bracelet that read 'Margo & Jack 21st June 2025'.
The Brit was arrested after park staff were shocked to see the 'scared and confused' child turn up for the event wearing what was said to be a bridal dress and four-inch heels taped to her feet, according to Le Parisien.
Jean-Baptiste Bladier, the Meaux prosecutor, said the British suspect was also being investigated for 'corruption of a minor'.
Eerie footage emerged of the supposed wedding between a '22-year-old' Brit and a nine-year-old girl at the Disney resort outside Paris
The entire event was due to be broadcast live on social media, according to prosecutors, with 'extras' recruited online to play family
He is said to have disguised himself to 'play the role of the groom, having made up his face professionally', added M. Bladier.
The girl's mother, who is believed to be of Ukrainian heritage and was later arrested, had reportedly said she wanted her daughter to feel like a Disney 'princess' for the day, according to DW.
The girl is said to have been carried around because she could not walk in the extravagant costume.
She had not been a victim of either physical or sexual violence and had not been 'forced to play the role' of a bride, according to the French prosecutor.
The prosecutor's statement also said that Disneyland Paris had been 'deceived' and that the organiser had used a fake Latvian ID to hire the venue.
Disneyland Paris can be rented by members of the public outside opening hours.
The family of one of Jhaj's 15-year-old victims told the BBC the the predator has 'destroyed' her life.
They complained that YouTube had allowed the video of her to be watched for entertainment for four years by Jhaj's 12 million subscribers.
