Rape charge for Epstein ‘supplier’
THE FRENCH fashion agent accused of supplying victims to Jeffrey Epstein has been charged with the rape of minors and sexual harassment.
Jean-luc Brunel is alleged to have slept with the same teenage Epstein victim who claimed Prince Andrew had sex with her.
Prosecutors in Paris confirmed that Jean-luc Brunel, 74, was indicted late on Friday night after two days of interviews by an examining magistrate and police from an anti-paedophilia unit.
He had been arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday while trying to board a flight to Dakar, Senegal.
Brunel is suspected of having been part of a global under-age sex ring organised by the late American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide last year while awaiting trial for numerous sex crimes.
Others said to have been involved include Epstein’s exgirlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, 58, who is on remand in the US after being charged with the sex trafficking of under-age girls and the enticement of minors.
Prince Andrew, 60, was, like his friend Maxwell, alleged to be a regular visitor to Epstein’s flat in Paris, where many of the crimes are said to have taken place.
A French judicial probe into Brunel’s conduct was opened in August 2019, when prosecutors heard allegations that he and Andrew shared a lover.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 37, has told lawyers she was employed as a “sex slave” when she was forced to sleep with Andrew after being trafficked to him at least three times when she was 17. Ms Roberts Giuffre
NOW IN CUSTODY: Ghislaine Maxwell with Jean-luc Brunel
DENIAL: Andrew yesterday
has also said she had “sexual relations with Brunel on several occasions”, between the ages of 16 and 19, according to papers filed in America and France.
Both Andrew and Brunel vehemently deny these claims, with the Prince considered a key witness who both the Americans and the French want to interview.
A French prosecuting source said of Brunel yesterday: “He has been placed under examination for the rape of minors and sexual harassment.”
The source used the term “mise en examen”, the French equivalent of a defendant being formally charged prior to a trial.
The rape of a minor is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, while aggravated sexual harassment comes with a three-year sentence and a fine equivalent to around £40,000.
Brunel, who denies any wrongdoing, is likely to be held in custody until a trial in the new year, according to the source.
He is also suspected of using his contacts in the fashion industry to provide victims for Epstein and his friends.
He is said to have flown three pre-teenage sisters from a Paris housing estate to America so they could be abused by Epstein as “a birthday present”.
Epstein – an old friend and business of associate of Brunel’s – committed suicide in his cell in New York on August 10 last year, while awaiting trial for offences including trafficking minors for sex and multiple rapes.
Among his alleged victims, it is claimed in court documents, were the 12-year-old triplets from Paris.
Brunel founded model agency MC2, which prosecutors believe was used as a cover for Epstein’s sex trafficking, and worked with celebrities including Jerry Hall and Sharon Stone.
Evidence against him comes from former models, who have waived their anonymity to make their allegations public.
New Zealander Zoe Brock has claimed she was abused in his Paris home in the early 1990s.
Dutch model Thysia Huisman, who was 18 when she first stayed with Brunel, said she was raped by him in 1991.
She is now one of at least four alleged victims represented by barrister Anne-claire Le Jeune, who said Brunel being in custody was a huge relief, as their complaints now “take on meaning”.