Epstein’s pimp found hanged
Frenchman who procured girls for paedophile discovered dead in prison cell – just days after Prince Andrew settles his case
THE death of French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel launched a myriad of conspiracy theories last night – and left his alleged victims angry and frustrated.
Brunel, 76, who is said to have helped procure ‘more than a thousand’ women on behalf of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, was found hanged in his Paris prison cell yesterday morning.
He was awaiting trial accused of raping minors. Epstein died in near identical circumstances in New York in 2019 after being accused of sexually assaulting and trafficking dozens of girls. Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is in a New York prison awaiting sentencing for sex trafficking.
As with Epstein’s death, doubts immediately began to surface about Brunel’s demise, with many suggesting he was murdered because he consorted with powerful people and ‘knew too much’.
Maxwell’s brother Ian said last night: ‘It’s really shocking. Another death by hanging in a high-security
‘He wasn’t on suicide watch, having already been in prison for months’
prison. My reaction is one of total shock and bewilderment.’ He added that it was ‘ironic’ that his sister was on suicide watch in prison, but Epstein and Brunel were not.
Brunel’s death brings a new focus to the scandal at a time when Prince Andrew was hoping to draw a line under his own involvement. Andrew last week avoided a public trial over sex abuse allegations after reaching an out-of-court settlement with accuser Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was forced to have sex with the Prince on three occasions, and also with Brunel between the ages of 16 and 19.
Andrew has consistently denied her allegations. While Brunel’s death will spare Andrew the indignity of seeing his name crop up at the Frenchman’s trial, the modelling agent’s alleged victims are devastated that he will never face justice and described his death as a double blow after Epstein’s suicide.
Ms Giuffre said Brunel ‘abused me and countless girls and young women,’ adding: ‘I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to face him in a final trial to hold him accountable, but gratified that I was able to testify in person last year to keep him in prison.’
Another alleged victim, former Dutch model Thysia Huisman, said: ‘It makes me angry, because I’ve been fighting for years. For me, the end of this was to be in court. Now that whole ending – which would help form closure – is taken away from me.’ Brunel was found hanging in his cell at La Santé prison at 1am yesterday.
Prison wardens said they were unable to resuscitate him after finding his body during a night patrol. He is thought to have been alone in his cell and there were no cameras, according to an investigating source, who added: ‘There were no obvious fears for the prisoner’s health and he was not on a suicide watch, having already been in prison for many months.’
Erwan Saoudi, a prison warden union representative, said: ‘On average, there are four to six (patrols). He chose to commit this act between two patrols. This shows that the prisoner was determined to go through with it.’
Brunel’s lawyers said he killed himself because he was ‘crushed’ by the allegations. ‘His distress was that of a man crushed by a media-judicial system which it should be time to question,’ they added. ‘Jean-Luc Brunel has continued to proclaim his innocence. He multiplied his efforts to prove it. His decision [to end his life] was not driven by guilt, but by a deep sense of injustice.’
Ms Guiffre had accused Brunel of procuring more than a thousand women and girls for Epstein to abuse and he had been in jail since December 2020 on charges of sexual harassment and the rape of minors over 15 years old.
Police arrested him at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris as he tried to board a flight to Senegal. Last June, he was further charged with drugging and raping a 17-year
old girl in the late 1990s. He had also been made an ‘assisted witness’ – one step short of being charged – over accusations of ‘aggravated people trafficking causing harm to minor victims’.
Brunel was the founder of modelling agency MC2, financed by Epstein. Prosecutors believe it was used as a cover for the American’s sex trafficking ring.