A French modeling agent and close associate of late US millionaire and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his Paris prison cell.
Prosecutors told theBBCthat Jean-Luc Brunel was found hanging in his cell at La Santé prison at 1:00 on Saturday.
Following theBBC report, the 76-year-old had been detained for more than a year while being probed on suspicion of rape and trafficking kids for sexual exploitation.
Amidst all of these Brunel denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers claimed that the allegations "crushed" him and blamed a "media-judicial system".
Brunel co-founded Karin Models in France in 1977, as well as MC2 Model Management in the United States, using Epstein's support.
Brunel was stopped at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport in December 2020 while attempting to catch a trip to Senegal.
His arrest was part of a French investigation into Epstein's sex trafficking and sexual assault claims, which focused on suspected crimes against French victims and suspects who are French residents.
Prosecutors accused Brunel of raping, sexually abusing, and harassing several juveniles and adults. They also assumed he was transporting and hosting young girls or young women for Epstein.
Epstein was discovered dead in a New York jail in 2019while awaiting trial on charges of running a network that exploited teenage girls for sex. A medical examiner determined that his death was suicide by hanging.
Epstein was already a convicted sex offender, having pled guilty to prostitution with a juvenile in Florida in 2008.
Source: International Business Times UK
