A model agent from France who had been charged with arranging for girls and young women to be abused by billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was found hanged in his Paris prison cell on Saturday, February 19, the Guardian reports.
Jean-Luc Brunel, 74, was found dead in his cell in La Sante where he had been remanded in custody since December 2020. He had been awaiting trial on sexual assault and rape. The model agent was also under investigation for trafficking minors, including girls as young as 12 years old.
Brunel, who was in charge of Paris' Karin Models and later launched MC2 Model Management with Epstein, went into hiding when the financier died by suicide in a Manhattan cell in August 2019. French authorities arrested Brunel in December 2020.
According to authorities in Paris, “no breach” in security at taken place at the prison, and an investigation into Brunel's cause of death had been launched.
Brunel had worked as a model agent in France since the late 1970s. He was introduced to Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty of sex trafficking last year.
Maxwell was charged with six counts alleging that she recruited, groomed, and abused four underage girls between 1994 and 2004. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The 60-year-old was found guilty of five federal charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and three related counts of conspiracy.
She was acquitted on the charge of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, per BBC News.
Maxwell, who now faces up to 65 years in prison, showed no emotion when the verdicts were read. Judge Alison Nathan did not set a sentencing date after the verdict.
Her trial heard how she summoned a 14-year-old girl to an orgy, groped another victim, and laid a schoolgirl outfit out for a third accuser before a sexualized massage with Epstein because she "thought it would be fun".
The full indictment against Maxwell listed six charges, including conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, and conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.