Photograph Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Each day Beast/Getty/YouTube
On Saturday, a French mannequin scout and alleged procurer of victims for rich sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was discovered useless in his Paris jail cell. Jean-Luc Brunel, 76, reportedly hanged himself whereas awaiting trial for raping underage women—an finish stunningly just like his predator pal.
Thysia Huisman, who got here ahead to accuse Brunel of rape in 2019 and has pushed for his prosecution in France, informed The Each day Beast she was “in shock” and “indignant” that the legal case she’s spent years preventing for was abruptly over.
“I had my thoughts set on the trial in the future and that he would stand in entrance of the choose, that as victims we might have our second in courtroom,” the previous mannequin informed The Each day Beast on Saturday. “This feels disappointing. It’s a special sort of ending, under no circumstances a closure.”
“I've blended feelings,” Huisman continued. “I’ve been preventing for this for two.5 years and impulsively: poof it’s gone.”
“Ultimately, what's most necessary is that he was in jail as a result of we as victims got here ahead in opposition to him.”
"Former mannequin Thysia Huisman, who's amongst girls who've accused Jean-Luc Brunel, a modeling agent related to disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein of rape, poses for an image in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020.
Peter Dejong/AP
Huisman claims that Brunel drugged and raped her in 1991, when she was an 18-year-old mannequin in Paris. She says she stayed silent for nearly three a long time due to her emotions of disgrace and guilt however contacted French police in September 2019, quickly after Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal lockup.
A number of different victims joined Huisman in reporting Brunel to police that 12 months. “My case was previous the statute of limitations however it felt good to be the primary one to report him,” Huisman informed us. “That sends the message that you just're not staying silent anymore.”
However in one other parallel to the Epstein case, Huisman says she's “suspicious” of Brunel's premature finish. Like Epstein, Brunel hanged himself in his cell earlier than going through a jury for his alleged intercourse crimes.
“It sounds so suspicious,” Huisman informed The Each day Beast. “I do not imagine it, that he killed himself. It’s like what occurred to Epstein. It’s too handy.”
“These guys, they’re not the suicidal kind,” she added. “He was satisfied he was going to get out, so why did he kill himself, you recognize?”
An investigation is underway into how Brunel died.
In accordance with Huisman, Brunel's authorized crew was making an attempt to get him out of jail due to his age however a choose denied his request.
“However for me he’s not the sort who would kill himself,” Huisman mentioned. “He was too smug, too stuffed with himself. That’s my concept.”
Huisman just isn't alone in her doubts about how Brunel died.
On Twitter, a refrain of observers posted an eerily acquainted line: “Brunel did not kill himself.” Some recommended Brunel was “Epsteined.”
“Bizarre how this retains occurring!” one London-based editor Ash Sarkar tweeted.
“Jean-Luc Brunel has 'dedicated suicide.' He was accused of procuring younger women for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse,” wrote former British prosecutor Nazir Afzal. Good friend of Ghislaine Maxwell & named by Virginia Guiffre as one in every of her abusers.”
“He was awaiting trial in France for sexually abuse. I’m no conspiracy theorist however..”
Social media customers have been fast to query why cameras didn't seize Brunel's dying. Nevertheless, many French jail cells should not underneath video surveillance
Whereas Huisman cannot say for certain that Brunel did not kill himself, she mentioned, “It’s unusual he was not on suicide watch and this might have occurred in a jail cell.
“With Epstein it’s precisely the identical story. I do not purchase it.”
For years, Brunel was a key member of Epstein’s inside circle, routinely dropping into his houses in Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands and a frequent flyer on Epstein's non-public jet.
At fellow Epstein affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal trial late final 12 months, jurors noticed a photograph of Brunel and the British socialite with Epstein on a airplane. Virginia Roberts Giuffre has claimed Brunel supplied a gradual stream of underage women for the financier to abuse by way of his modeling company MC2.
In a 2015 affidavit, Giuffre mentioned Brunel provided women “from poor nations or poor backgrounds” modeling jobs earlier than sending them to Epstein to be sexually abused. “Jeffrey Epstein has informed me that he has slept with over 1,000 of Brunel’s women, and all the things that I've seen confirms this declare,” Giuffre acknowledged within the doc.
In case you or a liked one are fighting suicidal ideas, please attain out to the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Disaster Textual content Line by texting TALK to 741741