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, in response to the Paris prosecutor’s workplace.
Paris police are investigating Jean-Luc Brunel’s loss of life on the historic La Santé Jail in Paris, the prosecutor’s workplace stated.
Victims of his alleged abuse described shock and dismay that the 75-year-old — a well known mannequin scout within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties who ran totally different businesses in Paris and New York — won’t ever face trial. They known as his loss of life a double blow after Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail whereas awaiting sex-trafficking costs.
Brunel’s legal professionals prompt 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 stated. “His determination 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 flats in Paris.
One in every of Epstein’s foremost accusers, Virginia Giuffre, has alleged that Brunel procured girls, 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 girls who recognized themselves as victims have spoken to police because the French probe started in 2019, and at instances they expressed frustration with the gradual tempo of the investigation.
One in every of them, Thysia Huisman, stated Saturday that the information of Brunel’s loss of life despatched her into “shock.”
“It makes me offended, as a result of I have been preventing for years,” Huisman, a former Dutch mannequin who informed police she was drugged and raped by Brunel as a teen, informed 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, stated different girls concerned within the case really feel the identical.
“Nice disappointment, nice frustration that [the victims] will not get justice,” she informed 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 considerations that Brunel’s loss of life 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 stated.
She expressed hope that Brunel’s loss of life will not discourage girls from persevering with to talk out about abuse. The investigation, together with a rising reckoning about sexual misconduct in France, has “freed up girls to speak about it,” she stated. “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 loss of life.
For Giuffre and different victims, the information of Brunel’s loss of life 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 girls, ends one other chapter. I am disillusioned that I wasn’t in a position to face him in a closing trial to carry him accountable, however gratified that I used to be in a position to testify in individual final yr to maintain him in jail.”
McCawley stated Brunel’s loss of life didn’t finish the seek for justice.
“For the ladies who’ve stood up and known as for accountability from legislation enforcement all over the world, it’s not how these males died, however how they lived, and the injury they prompted to so many. The combat to hunt reality and justice goes on,” she stated.
Britain’s Prince Andrew just lately agreed to settle a case during 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, during which Andrew agreed to make a considerable donation to Giuffre’s charity, avoids a trial.