Epstein associate found dead in jail while awaiting trial for raping minors

Former French modeling agent and Jeffrey Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel was found dead in his Paris jail cell during the night, a spokesman for the city's prosecutor said Saturday.

According to The New York Times, Brunel, 75, had been charged with raping minors over the age of 15 (France's age of consent) and with sexual harassment. He was also "suspected of scouting young women" for Epstein's sex trafficking ring.

The prosecutor said Brunel was found hanging and that his death appeared to be a suicide.

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Epstein died in prison in 2019 — also by hanging and, investigators concluded, by suicide — but his legacy of abuse continues to unfold.

On Tuesday, Britain's Prince Andrew reached a settlement with Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that Epstein trafficked her and forced her to have sex with Andrew and others while she was a minor. Andrew, who has been stripped of his royal titles and duties by Queen Elizabeth II, made no admission of guilt and agreed to donate an undisclosed sum to Giuffre's charity supporting victims' rights.

Per the Times, Giuffre's court filings said Brunel would procure girls as young as 12 for Epstein by offering them modeling jobs and that Brunel personally abused her on multiple occasions.

In December, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of procuring underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She was convicted on five sex trafficking charges, each of which carries a prison term of between five and 40 years.