A modelling agent who was near convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein was discovered lifeless Saturday in his French jail cell, the place he was being held in an investigation into the rape and intercourse trafficking of minors, based on the Paris prosecutor’s workplace.
Paris police are investigating Jean-Luc Brunel’s dying on the historic La Santé Jail in Paris, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.
Victims of his alleged abuse described shock and dismay that the 75-year-old — a widely known mannequin scout within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties who ran completely different businesses in Paris and New York — won’t ever face trial. They referred to as his dying a double blow after Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail whereas awaiting sex-trafficking costs.
Brunel’s legal professionals recommended on Saturday that he, too, killed himself. In a press release, they described his “misery” at his incarceration and his repeated requests for a provisional launch from the jail.
“Jean-Luc Brunel by no means stopped declaring his innocence,” they mentioned. “His choice was not guided by guilt, however by a deep sentiment of injustice.”
The legal professionals wouldn’t remark additional on what occurred, and it was unclear whether or not the jail had suicide prevention measures in place.
Brunel was detained at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2020 as a part of a broad French probe unleashed by the U.S. sex-trafficking costs towards Epstein.
A frequent companion of Epstein, Brunel was thought of central to the French investigation into alleged sexual exploitation of girls and women by the U.S. financier and his circle. Epstein travelled typically to France and had residences in Paris.
Certainly one of Epstein’s most important accusers, Virginia Giuffre, has alleged that Brunel procured ladies, a few of them minors, for intercourse with Epstein and different rich folks, luring them with guarantees of modelling work.
Closure ‘taken away’ from accusers
A number of ladies who recognized themselves as victims have spoken to police because the French probe started in 2019, and at instances they expressed frustration with the sluggish tempo of the investigation.
Certainly one of them, Thysia Huisman, mentioned Saturday that the information of Brunel’s dying despatched her into “shock.”
“It makes me offended, as a result of I have been preventing for years,” Huisman, a former Dutch mannequin who advised police she was drugged and raped by Brunel as a teen, advised The Related Press. “For me, the tip of this was to be in courtroom. And now that entire ending — which might assist kind closure — is taken away from me.”
Anne-Claire Le Jeune, a lawyer representing Huisman and different accusers, mentioned different ladies concerned within the case really feel the identical.
“Nice disappointment, nice frustration that [the victims] will not get justice,” she advised the AP.
She expressed doubt that the investigation would result in a trial, as a result of Brunel was so central to the case. She additionally voiced issues that Brunel’s dying means his accusers will not get any official recognition of their standing as victims.
“To rebuild your self [after abuse], that is likely one of the important steps,” Huisman mentioned.
She expressed hope that Brunel’s dying will not discourage ladies from persevering with to talk out about abuse. The investigation, together with a rising reckoning about sexual misconduct in France, has “freed up ladies to speak about it,” she mentioned. “It is a troublesome step that requires quite a lot of braveness and power.”
‘Battle to hunt reality and justice goes on’
Brunel was named in U.S. courtroom filings, too. The spokesperson for the prosecutors who charged Epstein in New York declined touch upon Brunel’s dying.
For Giuffre and different victims, the information of Brunel’s dying was “devastating,” in accordance a press release from her lawyer, Sigrid McCawley.
Giuffre herself tweeted: “The suicide of Jean-Luc Brunel, who abused me and numerous women and younger ladies, ends one other chapter. I am disenchanted that I wasn’t capable of face him in a last trial to carry him accountable, however gratified that I used to be capable of testify in individual final yr to maintain him in jail.”
McCawley mentioned Brunel’s dying didn’t finish the seek for justice.
“For the ladies who’ve stood up and referred to as for accountability from legislation enforcement around the globe, it’s not how these males died, however how they lived, and the injury they brought on to so many. The combat to hunt reality and justice goes on,” she mentioned.
Britain’s Prince Andrew lately agreed to settle a case through which Giuffre accused him of sexual abuse when she was 17. Giuffre says she was equipped to Andrew by Epstein, costs that Andrew denies. The settlement, through which Andrew agreed to make a considerable donation to Giuffre’s charity, avoids a trial.
