Paris police are investigating Jean-Luc Brunel’s loss of life on the historic La Sante jail in Paris, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.
Victims of his alleged abuse described shock and dismay that the 75-year-old, a widely known mannequin scout within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties who ran completely different businesses in Paris and New York, won’t ever face trial. They known as his loss of life as a double blow after Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail whereas awaiting sex-trafficking fees.
Brunel’s attorneys recommended Saturday that he, too, killed himself. In a press release, they described his “misery” at his incarceration and his repeated requests for a provisional launch from the jail.
“Jean-Luc Brunel by no means stopped declaring his innocence,” they mentioned. “His resolution was not guided by guilt, however by a deep sentiment of injustice.”
The attorneys wouldn’t additional touch upon what occurred, and it was unclear whether or not the jail had suicide prevention measures in place.
Brunel was detained at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2020 as a part of a broad French probe unleashed by the U.S. sex-trafficking fees in opposition to Epstein. A frequent companion of Epstein, Brunel was thought-about central to the French investigation into alleged sexual exploitation of ladies and ladies by the U.S. financier and his circle. Epstein traveled typically to France and had residences in Paris.
Certainly one of Epstein’s fundamental accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has alleged that Brunel procured ladies, a few of them minors, for intercourse with Epstein and different rich folks, luring them with guarantees of modeling work.
A number of ladies who recognized themselves as victims have spoken to police because the French probe started in 2019, and at occasions expressed frustration with the sluggish tempo of the investigation.
Certainly one of them, Thysia Huisman, mentioned Saturday that the information of Brunel’s loss of life despatched her into “shock.”
“It makes me indignant, as a result of I’ve been combating for years,” Huisman, a Dutch former mannequin who advised police she was drugged and raped by Brunel as a teen, advised The Related Press. “For me, the top of this was to be in courtroom. And now that complete ending — which might assist kind closure — is taken away from me.”
A lawyer representing Huisman and different victims, Anne-Claire Le Jeune, mentioned different ladies concerned within the case really feel the identical.
“Nice disappointment, nice frustration that (the victims) received’t get justice,” she advised The AP.
She expressed doubt that the investigation would result in a trial, as a result of Brunel was so central to the case. She additionally voiced considerations that Brunel’s loss of life means his accusers received’t get any official recognition of their standing as victims.
“To rebuild your self (after abuse), that is likely one of the important steps,” Huisman mentioned.
She expressed hope that Brunel’s loss of life will not discourage ladies from persevering with to talk out about abuse. The investigation, together with a rising reckoning about sexual misconduct in France, has “freed up ladies to speak about it,” she mentioned. “It’s a tough step that requires quite a lot of braveness and energy.”
Brunel was named in U.S. courtroom filings, too. The spokesperson for the prosecutors who charged Epstein in New York declined touch upon Brunel’s loss of life.
For Giuffre and different victims, the information of Brunel’s loss of life was “devastating,” in accordance a press release from her lawyer, Sigrid McCawley.
Guiffre herself tweeted: “The suicide of Jean-Luc Brunel, who abused me and numerous ladies and younger ladies, ends one other chapter. I’m disillusioned that I wasn’t capable of face him in a remaining trial to carry him accountable, however gratified that I used to be capable of testify in particular person final 12 months to maintain him in jail.”
McCawley mentioned Brunel’s loss of life didn’t finish the seek for justice.
“For the ladies who’ve stood up and known as for accountability from regulation enforcement world wide, it’s not how these males died, however how they lived, and the injury they brought about to so many. The battle to hunt reality and justice goes on,” McCawley mentioned.
Britain’s Prince Andrew lately agreed to settle a case through which Giuffre accused him of sexual abuse when she was 17. Guiffre says she was equipped to Andrew by Epstein, fees that Andrew denies. The settlement, through which Andrew agreed to make a considerable donation to Giuffre’s charity, avoids a trial.
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