French prosecutors on Saturday have charged French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a former close associate of disgraced American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, over alleged sex crimes.
Brunel was charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment, according to a report from France24 citing a statement from the prosecutors’ office.
Brunel was initially detained Wednesday at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to board a flight to Senegal.
The arrest is an offshoot of the arrest of Epstein in New York in July 2019 on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.
He will, however, be found hanged in his New York jail cell the following month while awaiting trial over alleged abuses involving girls at his Palm Beach home and on his private island in the Caribbean.
Euronews in a report said Brunel’s arrest was part of a broader inquiry opened in August 2019, “targeting sexual offences likely to have been committed by Jeffrey Epstein and possible accomplices on French victims or on French territory.”.
Epstein frequently travelled to Paris and owed a luxury flat on the prestigious Avenue Foch.
Brunel is suspected, among other things, of “organizing transport and accommodation of young girls or young women on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein,” the prosecutors’ statement read.
Brunel is considered an “assisted witness” for crimes of “human trafficking of underage victims for the purpose of sexual exploitation.”
Photo by Laura Orchestra from Flickr
