As revealed by The Parisian on December 17, 2020, Jean-Luc Brunel, 74, a famous former modeling agent, was arrested at Roissy airport for "rapes of minors"and"sexual harassment" on December 16, 2020. He was remanded in custody. The suspect was also placed under the intermediary status of assisted witness for acts of "trafficking in human beings aggravated to the detriment of underage victims for the purpose of sexual exploitation".
Jean-Luc Brunel was wanted by French justice and was arrested at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport as he was preparing to fly to Dakar. The former modeling agent was immediately taken into custody.
Two women accused Jean-Luc Brunel to take advantage of the naivety of young girls that he attracted across the Atlantic by making them dangle a modeling career. Thysia Huisman, ex-supermodel, for her part claimed to have been "drugged and raped"by the agent when she was 18 years old. The Parisian mentions a dozen facts, most of them unfortunately prescribed. But another complaint was filed in 2019 against Jean-Luc Brunel, for acts of "sexual harassment"non-prescribed this time.
Jean-Luc Brunel was arrested while attempting to board a flight to Dakar, Senegal. If his lawyer had indicated in October 2019 that the man "was available to justice", it had nevertheless disappeared from radar since."I hope the French justice will lock him up for good", reacted Thysia Huisman on his account Twitter following the announcement of this arrest.
Me Anne-Claire Le Jeune, which represents several victims of Jean-Luc Brunel, for his part told AFP that the complainants "welcomed this custody with relief and confidence in the legal consequences that will be given"."Their words finally make sense", she concludes.
Why the Paris prosecutor's office is interested in the Epstein case
Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein was indicted in July 2019 in the United States for organizing, between 2002 and 2005, a network of young girls he allegedly sexually exploited. He committed suicide in prison in New York in early August 2019.
Alerted by the potential existence of French minors among the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation in August 2019 and thus became interested in Mr. Brunel's role as a tout on behalf of the American tycoon. The ex-modeling agent is known as the founder of the Karin Models and MC2 Model Management agencies.
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