PARIS: Prominent French model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a close associate of disgraced US billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead in his Paris prison cell, prosecutors said on Saturday, in an echo of the jail suicide of his friend.

Epstein, arrested in July 2019 on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex, was found hanged in his New York jail cell the following month awaiting trial over abuses against under-age women.

His former associate Brunel, in his mid-70s, had been charged with the rape of minors and held in prison since December 2020. He was briefly freed in late 2021 but then re-incarcerated on a Paris court of appeal ruling.

A source close to the investigation said Brunel had been found dead overnight Friday to Saturday in the prison de la Sante. Paris prosecutors later confirmed he had died.

The source said he had been found hanged but this was not confirmed by prosecutors. Police are now investigating the cause of death, added the source, asking not to be named. Brunel’s death means his case is closed.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2022