Former French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who had close ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein, was found dead in a Paris prison in an apparent suicide while facing rape charges.
Agency France Presse reported earlier Saturday that Brunel was found hanged on Friday night in his cell in the La Sante prison. The Paris public prosecutor’s office confirmed his death to Bloomberg News, and said an investigation into the cause has been opened by the police. Brunel’s lawyers indicated he took his own life.
“His decision was not guided by guilt but by a deep sense of injustice,” lawyers Christophe Ingrain, Mathias Chichportiche and Marianne Abgrall said in a statement. “Jean-Luc Brunel has never stopped claiming his innocence. He has multiplied his efforts to prove it.”
