Jeffrey Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel is found dead in a French jail cell
February 19, 2022, The Associated Press
Paris -- A modeling agent who was close to disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead Saturday in his French jail cell, where he was being held in an investigation into the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
Victims of the alleged abuse described shock and dismay that the agent, Jean-Luc Brunel, will never face trial. They described his death as a double blow, after Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting sex-trafficking charges.
Paris police are investigating Brunel's death, the prosecutor's office said. The circumstances of his death were not made public and Brunel's lawyers did not comment on it.
Brunel denied wrongdoing and said via his lawyer that he was willing to talk to investigators. Brunel's legal team had repeatedly complained about the conditions of his detention and sought to have him released pending trial.
Brunel, who was in his 70s, was detained at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2020 as part of a broad French probe unleashed by the U.S. sex-trafficking charges against Epstein.
A frequent companion of Epstein, Brunel was considered central to the French investigation into alleged sexual exploitation of women and girls by the U.S. financier and his circle. Epstein traveled often to France and had apartments in Paris.
Multiple women who identified themselves as victims have spoken to police since the French probe was opened in 2019, and at times expressed frustration with the slow pace of the investigation.
One of them, Thysia Huisman, said the news of Brunel's death sent her into "shock."
"It makes me angry, because I've been fighting for years," Huisman, a Dutch former model who told police she was raped by Brunel as a teen, told The Associated Press. "For me, the end of this was to be in court. And now that whole ending — which would help form closure — is taken away from me."
A lawyer representing Huisman and other victims, Anne-Claire Lejeune, said other women involved in the case feel the same.
"Great disappointment, great frustration that (the victims) won't get justice," she told The AP.
She expressed doubt that the investigation would lead to a trial because Brunel was so central to the case. She also voiced concerns that Brunel's death mean his accusers won't get official recognition of their status as victims.
"To rebuild yourself (after abuse), that is one of the essential steps," Huisman said.
She expressed hope that Brunel's death won't discourage women from continuing to speak out about abuse. The investigation, along with a growing reckoning about sexual misconduct in France, has "freed up women to talk about it," she said. "It's a difficult step that requires a lot of courage and strength."
One of Epstein's main accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has alleged that Brunel procured women, some of them minors, for sex with Epstein and other people, luring them with promises of modeling work.
Britain's Prince Andrew recently agreed to settle a case in which Giuffre accused him of sexual abuse when she was 17. Guiffre says she was supplied to Andrew by Epstein, charges that Andrew denies. The settlement, in which Andrew agreed to make a substantial donation to Giuffre's charity, avoids a trial.
Ghislaine Maxwell's family "fears for her safety" after Brunel found dead
By Isabel Vincent | New York Post, Published February 19, 2022
The family of Ghislaine Maxwell say they fear for her safety after model agent Jean-Luc Brunel was found hanged in his Paris prison cell on Saturday.
Maxwell, who was convicted last year of sex trafficking, allegedly introduced Brunel to billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who was found hanging in his Manhattan lockup in August 2019.
"It's really shocking," Ian Maxwell, one of Ghislaine's siblings, told The Post. "Another death by hanging in a high-security prison. My reaction is one of total shock and bewilderment."
In an interview from his home in London, Ian Maxwell said the family "fears for her safety" at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where she is being held.
Last month, Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, officially requested a retrial after a juror in the case told media that he used his own experience of being sexually abused in order to influence his peers on the jury to reach a guilty verdict.
Maxwell's attorney Bobbi Sternheim refused comment Saturday.
Brunel, who ran Karin Models in Paris, and later formed MC2 Model Management with Epstein, was charged with securing girls and young women for Epstein.
He was awaiting trial when he was found hanged by his bedsheets in his cell around 1:30 a.m. local time at La Sante prison, the Paris prosecutor's office told CNN.
French prison authorities told local media that "no breach" in security at the prison had occurred, and an investigation into the cause of death had been launched.
