- Jean-Luc Brunel, an associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead in his Paris jail cell.
- Brunel was found hanged in his cell in the Sante prison in Paris at around 1:00 a.m. on February 19.
- Brunel was arrested in 2020 as part of an investigation into the alleged rape and sexual assault of minors .
Jean-Luc Brunel, a former modelling agent and an associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead in his French jail cell, according to numerous media outlets.
Brunel was found hanged in his cell in the Sante prison in Paris at around 1:00 a.m. on February 19 and an investigation into the cause of his death has been opened, the prosecutor's office in the French capital confirmed, according to French newspaper Le Monde.
Brunel, who was 76, was arrested and detained at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport in December 2020 as he attempted to board a flight to Dakar, Senegal, the Guardian reported at the time.
His arrest was linked to an investigation into "rapes, sexual assaults, the rape and sexual assault of a minor aged 15, the rape and sexual assault of a minor over 15 years, sexual harassment, association with criminals and the trafficking and exploitation of minors," the Paris prosecutor's office said at the time of his arrest.
That investigation, which started in 2019, centered on "events of a sexual nature thought to have been committed by Jeffrey Epstein and other accomplices," the Guardian quoted prosecutors as saying.
He was released on bail in November 2021, but was later ordered to return to prison to await trial.
In 2019, a former model told CBS that Brunel had drugged and raped her when he was in his forties.
"I know I was raped. I know that," the woman, who was 26 at the time of the alleged assault, told CBS News.
Brunel offered her a drink after asking her to come back to his apartment to pick something up, she said, "the next thing I remember was waking up in his bed and he was beside me."
"He was sleeping and I was naked," she told CBS. "I was wondering how I got there."