Brunel (right) with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on the billionaire’s private jet
(Picture: US District Attorney’s Office)Prince Andrew’s accuser Virginia Roberts said she is “disappointed” a French fashion agent and friend of disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in his prison cell.
Jean-Luc Brunel, 76, was in detention awaiting a trial on charges of rape of a minor and sexual harassment.
Authorities in Paris confirmed that Brunel was found hanging in his cell in La Santé in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Ms Roberts, also known as Giuffre, said on Twitter: “The suicide of Jean-Luc Brunel, who abused me and countless girls and young women, ends another chapter.
“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.”
It is not clear whether Brunel was sharing a cell with other inmates or if there was CCTV footage inside.
An investigation has been launched into the cause of his death.
“A night patrol found his lifeless body at about 1am,” said an investigating source.
“A judicial enquiry has been launched, and early evidence points to suicide.”
Brunel was arrested in December 2020 at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport while trying to board a plane to Senegal
He was then indicted after two days of interviews by an examining magistrate and specialist police from an anti-paedophilia unit.
Brunel had been suspected of being part of a global sex trafficking ring organised by Jeffrey Epstein.
However, he denied involvement “directly or indirectly” in any of Epstein’s offences in a statement issued in 2015.
It said: “I strongly deny having committed any illicit act or any wrongdoing in the course of my work.”
Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was trafficked by Epstein as a teenager, has alleged that Brunel “farmed out” modelling hopefuls to the disgraced financier for sex.
She also alleged she was forced to have sex with Brunel at Epstein’s home.
Earlier this week, the Duke of York agreed to settle a case in which Giuffre accused him of sexual abuse when she was 17.
Guiffre says she was supplied to Andrew by Epstein, charges the Queen’s son denies.
The settlement, in which Andrew agreed to make a substantial donation to Giuffre’s charity, avoids a trial.
Multiple women who identified themselves as victims have spoken to police since the French probe was opened in 2019, and at times expressed frustration with the slow pace of the investigation.
One of them, Thysia Huisman, said the news of Brunel’s death sent her into “shock”.
“It makes me angry, because I’ve been fighting for years,” Ms Huisman, a Dutch former model who told police she was raped by Brunel as a teen, told The Associated Press.
“For me, the end of this was to be in court. And now that whole ending - which would help form closure - is taken away from me.”
A lawyer representing Huisman and other victims, Anne-Claire Lejeune, said other women involved in the case feel the same.
“Great disappointment, great frustration that (the victims) won’t get justice,” she said.
