Epstein associate found dead in prison cell
Mon 7:39 pm +00:00, 23 Feb 2026A 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 the BBC that Jean-Luc Brunel was found hanging in his cell at La Santé prison at 1:00 on Saturday.
Brunel Denied Allegations
Following the BBC 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 2019 while 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.
Brunel, a regular Epstein friend, was regarded as important to the French investigation into the financier and his circle’s alleged sexual mistreatment of women and girls.
Moreover, Brunel’s claimed victims expressed their disappointment with the news of his death.
Victims React as Case Ends Without Trial
Thysia Huisman, a Dutch former model who claims Brunel drugged and raped her when she was 18, it was disheartening that his claimed victims would never get their day in court, as per BBC report.
‘After more than two and a half years of fighting for justice, since I reported Brunel in September 2019, it’s a huge disappointment he will never face a judge,’ she expressed.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s key victims who said she was forced into intercourse with Brunel, said his death marked the end of “another chapter”.
She commented on her tweet: ‘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.’
Jean-Luc Brunel was ready to turn against the man who had been his patron and companion. The French model scout was ready to tell prosecutors what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking, per data from The Wall Street Journal.
According to recently revealed Justice Department documents, Brunel surreptitiously negotiated with attorneys representing Epstein’s victims in 2016. Brunel’s lawyer informed them that his client solicited females for Epstein and has damning images. They planned a day for Brunel to stroll into the United States Attorney’s office in New York, in return for immunity.
