A former model has accused a modeling agent close to disgraced U.S. sex crimes suspect Jeffrey Epstein of raping her in 1990, as France pursues its own wide ranging investigation into alleged sex offences on its territory.
A 46-year-old Dutch woman says Jean-Luc Brunel, 72, drugged and raped her at his Paris appartment in the early 1990s, shortly after her 18th birthday. Her allegation is contained in a letter sent to Paris Prosecutor Remi Heitz seen by French media service AFP on Saturday.
As Breitbart News reported, the Frenchman who founded the New York City-based modeling agency MC2, is alleged to possess key information regarding the late Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes and has disappeared like a “ghost… without a trace.”
Last week, the Daily Mail published a photo of Brunel cuddling with Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime friend and alleged procurer of underage girls, at Epstein’s “Little Saint James” private Caribbean island.
French prosecutors opened an inquiry last month into suspected sex trafficking and alleged cases of rape and sexual abuse of women, including minors, with Brunel named as a key figure.
Brunel has been accused in court documents of rape and of procuring young girls for Epstein, charges he has denied in the past.
But since Epstein’s arrest in July and subsequent death by suicide, Brunel has not been heard from publicly.
Epstein visited France often and owned a luxury home in Paris on Avenue Foch, one of the capital’s most expensive streets, favoured by royalty, celebrities and billionaires.
In her letter, the former Dutch model said several girls lived in Brunel’s apartment near the Champs-Elysees, where every day “rich businessmen were accompanied by very young girls.”
“The events are beyond the statute of limitations, and my client knows this will not lead to charges against Mr Brunel,” the woman’s lawyer, Anne-Claire Le Jeune, told AFP. “But she wanted to testify anyway, to help the inquiry move forward,” she said.
It is also investigating claims that Epstein and others participated for years in a vast child sex-trafficking ring.
Meanwhile, neither detectives nor reporters have established Brunel’s whereabouts, but investigators believe he spent time in France during the summer and then left the country. They have ruled out theories that he is in the U.S. or Thailand, but say it is plausible that he may be in Brazil, according to the Daily Telegraph.
AFP contributed to this story
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