The family of Ghislaine Maxwell say they are worried for her safety after the prison death of French fashion agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who had ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On Saturday, French officials announced that Brunel, a former top agent for models, was found dead in his Paris prison cell. Authorities have ruled that he took his own life.
Brunel was awaiting trial after having been charged with sexual harassment and raping a minor over the age of 15. He was also accused of sex trafficking girls for Epstein. Brunel’s lawyers have maintained his innocence.
Epstein died under similar circumstances, found dead in his jail cell in New York in August 2019 before he could go to trial, in a death authorities also ruled as suicide, though claims it was otherwise have become fodder for conspiracists.
“It’s really shocking,” Ian Maxwell, one of Maxwell’s siblings, told The New York Post on Saturday, saying he “fears for her safety”.
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted last year of sex trafficking as part of the Epstein abuse ring.
“Another death by hanging in a high-security prison. My reaction is one of total shock and bewilderment,” Mr Maxwell added, saying it was “ironic” that prison authorities now have his sister under suicide watch, even though neither Epstein or Brunel were actively on suicide watch on the days they died.
Brunel’s lawyers told CNN his death should not be regarded as an admission of guilt.
“Jean-Luc Brunel has never stopped claiming his innocence. He has multiplied his efforts to prove it. A judge had released him a few months ago, and then he was re-incarcerated in undignified conditions,” the lawyers said.
Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was abused as a teen at the hands of Epstein, Brunel, and their powerful friends such as Prince Andrew, said on Saturday she hoped the modeling agent would have been able to face justice in a court of law. Andrew has denied Ms Giuffre’s claims and she has settled a lawsuit against the duke.
“The suicide of Jean-Luc Brunel, who abused me and countless girls and young women, ends another chapter,” Ms Guiffre wrote on Twitter. “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.”
Prison authorities say there was no evidence of a breach in the Santé prison in Paris where Brunel, who was apprehended in 2020, was being detained.
