The French owner of a world-famous modeling agency accused of rape has been found dead in his prison cell. Jean-Luc Brunel, former employee of the late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is said to have hanged himself. This is reported by French media.
Brunel (74) is said to have recruited girls for the wealthy Epstein on a large scale and also abused girls and women himself. He had been in prison for more than a year on remand.
In recent years, at least fifteen ex-top models have come forward with accusations of rape by the Frenchman, including the Dutch Thysia Huisman. She says she was drugged and raped by him in 1991.
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Huge disappointment
She is completely overwhelmed by the news of the possible suicide. ,,I am completely in shock, I did not expect this. The man had just gathered a whole team of top lawyers around him. He was convinced that he would be released,” Huisman said in a first reaction. “It is a huge disappointment. Me and other women have been fighting for so long to bring him to justice. And now we know that will never happen.”
Jean-Luc Brunel was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris in December 2020. He was reportedly about to board a plane to Senegal at the time.
A year later, he was officially charged with “rape of minors” and “sexual misconduct.” He is alleged to have sexually abused girls and young women who worked for his modeling agency on a large scale. ,,A total of about fifteen victims have come forward”, says Huisman. Most of those cases are now time-barred. But three cases were not and they were therefore still under investigation.”
There were also official suspicions against Brunel of ‘people smuggling, targeting minors and sexual exploitation’. That had to do with his ties to American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who also committed suicide in his cell in 2019. The Frenchman is said to have recruited many hundreds of girls for the American. In return, he was reportedly allowed to live in Epstein’s New York apartment. The name Brunel has been found twenty times on the flight records of Epstein’s private plane.
One of the women who already testified against the Frenchman in French court was the American Virginia Giuffre, who was one of the first to also sue Epstein. She also accused Britain’s Prince Andrew of abuse: the two reached a settlement last week.
Determined
Jean-Luc Brunel was found dead in his prison cell last night. “He was determined to kill himself,” a prison guards union said. “He did it at night between two rounds of guards. When he was found, rescuers were unable to do anything.”
Brunel’s lawyers emphasize that he has always maintained his innocence. “He wanted to do everything he could to prove that. But this was a man who had already been found guilty in the media. That broke him.”
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