In the amateur video, the pink hues of a June dawn bathe the Sleeping Beauty Castle, the symbol of Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, outside Paris. The longest day of the year, June 21, had just begun. It was 5 am. An assistant, dressed up and wearing a "Margot and Jack" bracelet, bustled around white, padded chairs. Flowers lined the aisle leading to the altar. A string quartet in gowns played. There was even a cake replica of the iconic Disney castle. The kitschy décor of this American-style wedding was shattered by the appearance of the would-be "groom," a 39-year-old "professionally made up to look completely different from himself," according to a statement from Jean-Baptiste Bladier, the prosecutor investigating the case, and by the 9-year-old girl, a Ukrainian national who had arrived in France two days earlier, and with whom the man was simulating a wedding.

Surprised by what he saw, a 55-year-old Latvian man, paid €12,000 to play a role in the ceremony, alerted Disneyland Paris security, who in turn notified police at the Chessy station. Officers arrived on the scene and discovered a scene that the psychologist and researcher Nicolas Estano, of the Resource Center for Professionals Working with Sex Offenders at Ville Evrard Hospital, compared to a "pedophile fantasy."

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