Brunel was found alone, hanged with bedsheets, in his jail cell at the Santé prison in the French capital at around 1:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, the prosecutor's office told CNN.
ferencziviktoria21/Getty Images(PARIS) ABC News has learned that disgraced modeling agent and Jeffrey Epstein associate Jean Luc Brunel died by suicide in his prison cell Saturday night in Paris. The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed to ABC News that Brunel was found dead in his prison cell around 1:00 a.m. local time at La Sante Prison. Jean Luc Brunel's lawyers tell ABC News Brunel hung himself. The prosecutor's office declined to confirm those details of Brunel's death. In December 2020, Brunel was charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment a crime in France. In a statement on their client's death which was in French and sent to and translated by ABC News, Brunel's lawyers said: "[Brunel's] distress (despair) was the one of a 75-year-old man who was destroyed by the judicial-media lynching and we should question it. Our client firmly asserted he never abused any women. He made multiple efforts to prove it."