French probe into Epstein sex network stalled, women say
PARIS — Women who say they were raped and sexually assaulted in France by an associate of Jeffrey Epstein are voicing frustration at the apparent glacial progress of a French police probe into their allegations, and are questioning the zeal of investigators who have made only limited efforts to track down other witnesses.
Chief among the women’s concerns is that a solitary public appeal by French police for potential witnesses to come forward, made Sept. 11 on Twitter and Facebook and worded only in French, might not have reached people who aren’t signed up to those social networks or who don’t follow the French police’s “PoliceNationale” feeds.
“I’m disappointed,” said Thysia Huisman, a former model who is among a dozen people who have so far given evidence for the probe, telling police she was drugged and raped in 1991 at age 18 by Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modelling agent.
The police investigation was launched in August after Epstein, the disgraced financier who maintained a residence in Paris, took his life while awaiting U.S. trial on sex-trafficking charges. One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has alleged that Brunel procured women, some of them minors, for sex with Epstein and other people, luring them with promises of modeling work.
Brunel’s lawyer, Corinne Dreyfus-Schmidt, did not respond to an emailed request for comment. She has previously said that her client “firmly contests accusations in the press” and that he is prepared to talk with investigators. He has yet to be questioned.