Jean-Luc Brunel, held on suspicion of supplying
girls to Epstein, found hanged
Former model agency boss accused of rape and suspected
of trafficking minors has died in prison
Kim
Willsher in Paris
Sat 19 Feb
2022 15.14 GMT
The former
boss of a French model agency accused of rape and under investigation on
suspicion of supplying underage girls to the late American financier Jeffrey
Epstein has been found dead in prison.
The body of
Jean-Luc Brunel, 75, was reportedly found hanging in his cell in the early
hours of Saturday. The French prosecutors’ office confirmed the report and said
an inquiry had been opened into the exact cause of death, but early indications
pointed to suicide.
Brunel was
arrested in December 2020 at Charles de Gaulle airport before boarding a plane
for Dakar in Senegal where he told police he was going on holiday.
He was
officially put under investigation on allegations of the alleged rape of a
minor and sexual harassment shortly after his arrest, and was put under a second
investigation for the rape of a minor in June last year.
Investigators
had also questioned Brunel on suspicion of the human trafficking of underage
girls for sexual exploitation. He was being held on remand in La Santé prison
in Paris.
Several top
models had come forward to accuse him of sexual assault and rape, and French
police had reportedly interviewed hundreds of potential witnesses. Brunel had
denied any wrongdoing or any involvement in illegal activities. He disappeared
from public life shortly after Epstein’s death in August 2019. Epstein also
hanged himself in his prison cell while awaiting trial.
In the
1990s, Paris-born Brunel was a model talent scout and boss of the prestigious
agency Karin Models. After he was banned from the agency in European 1999
following a BBC undercover report on abuse in the fashion industry, he moved to
the US and founded MC2 Model Management with funding from Epstein. He is
credited with discovering a number of supermodels including Christy Turlington
and Milla Jovovich.
He met
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner, in the 1980s and she had introduced him
to Epstein.
Brunel had
been released on bail last November but had been ordered to return to prison
after a few days to await trial.
His legal
team said in a statement: “His distress was that of a man of 75 years old
caught up in a media-legal system that we should be questioning. Jean-Luc
Brunel never stopped claiming his innocence and had made many efforts to prove
it. His decision [to end his life] was not driven by guilt but by a deep sense
of injustice.”
In 2015,
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who recently accepted an undisclosed sum from Prince
Andrew – another Epstein friend – after bringing a civil case against the
royal, accused Brunel of supplying girls to Epstein. She said the American
financier had bragged to her that he had slept with more than 1,000 “of
Brunel’s girls”.
Giuffre,
who was abused by Epstein, had claimed she had sex with Prince Andrew on three
occasions, the first of which when she was 17 years old. The prince had denied
her claims.
Maxwell,
59, is currently in prison in the US, having been convicted of sex trafficking.
French
prosecutors said Brunel’s death would put an end to the legal case unless other
suspects were put under investigation.
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