Jean-Luc Brunel, a former French modeling agent who was charged with raping minors and going through an investigation for allegedly trafficking underage women for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been discovered lifeless in his Paris jail cell.
The 75-year-old was discovered hanging with bedsheets in his cell at La Santé jail round 1:30 a.m. native time on Saturday, the Paris prosecutor's workplace confirmed in media studies. An investigation has been opened into the precise explanation for demise, however early studies point out he died by suicide.
Brunel, a long-time affiliate of Epstein, was charged in 2020 for the rape and sexual harassment of minors over the age of 15 and was positioned in pre-trial detention. At his time of demise, Brunel had additionally been going through an investigation into claims that he scouted underage women as a part of Epstein's widespread sexual abuse and exploitation ring.
His demise comes simply days after one other important growth unfolded within the Epstein scandal. Earlier this week, Prince Andrewagreed to settle an estimated $10 million lawsuit introduced by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accused the British royal of raping her when she was a 17-year-old trafficking sufferer of Epstein.
Giuffre had additionally accused Epstein of sexually trafficking her to Brunel "on quite a few events," in line with courtroom paperwork. She alleged that Brunel would provide modeling jobs to underage European women and take them to the U.S. to be "farmed out" to Epstein and his associates.
"My assumption was that Jean-Luc Brunel received the women from Jap Europe (as he procured many younger international women for Epstein)," Giuffre first testified in 2015. She later added that Epstein as soon as bragged to her that he had slept with greater than 1,000 "of Brunel's women," in line with The Guardian.
Brunel has additionally been accused of sexual assault and rape by a number of different high-profile fashions. Nevertheless, together with Prince Andrew, he has maintained his innocence and denied have any unlawful involvement with Epstein.
On Saturday, attorneys for Brunel mentioned that his obvious suicide was "not guided by guilt however by a deep sense of injustice."
"[Brunel's] misery was the certainly one of a 75-year-old man who was destroyed by the judicial-media lynching and we must always query it. Our shopper firmly asserted he by no means abused any ladies. He made a number of efforts to show it," they informed reporters.
Giuffre, who's testimonies helped maintain Brunel in detention, additionally commented on the 75-year-old's demise.
"The suicide of Jean Luc Brunel, who abused me and numerous women and younger ladies, ends one other chapter. I'm upset that I used to be not capable of face him in a remaining trial and maintain him accountable for his actions, however gratified that I used to be capable of face him in individual final yr in Paris, to maintain him in jail," she mentioned in an announcement issued although her lawyer, Sigrid McCawley.
Epstein was equally discovered lifeless in his jail cell in New York Metropolis on August 10, 2019, whereas he was awaiting trial for federal intercourse trafficking and quite a few allegations of sexual abuse. His demise was decided by a health worker to be suicide by hanging.
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