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| A former Dutch model who accuses French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel of rape says women and girls were abused in Epstein's appartment near Paris's Champs-Elysees (AFP Photo/JACQUES DEMARTHON) |
Paris (AFP) - A former model has accused a modelling agent close to US sex crimes suspect Jeffrey Epstein of raping her in 1990, as France pursues its own investigation into alleged offences on its territory.
In a letter
sent to Paris Prosecutor Remi Heitz seen by AFP on Saturday, a 46-year-old
Dutch woman says Jean-Luc Brunel drugged and raped her at his Paris appartment
in the early 1990s, shortly after she turned 18.
French
prosecutors opened an inquiry last month into suspected sex trafficking and
alleged cases of rape and sexual abuse of women, including minors.
Brunel has
emerged as a key figure in the scandal surrounding the US billionaire, who
committed suicide in a New York jail last month.
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 -- just as he returned from a trip to Paris -- Brunel,
formerly a high-power model scout, has not been heard from publicly.
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.
A French
advocacy group for child sex abuse victims, Innocence En Danger (Innocence at
Risk), has said 10 people had offered witness statements alleging sex crimes
committed against minors in France.
According
to the Parisian newspaper, Paris police last week questioned two other women
who said they had been sexually assaulted by Brunel. These alleged offences
happened too long ago for prosecution.
Four years
ago, Brunel was accused in a civil lawsuit of rape and procuring young girls
for the US financier.
Virginia
Roberts Giuffre, who filed the suit, accused Epstein of using her as a
"sex slave". She said she had been forced to have sex with well-known
politicians and businessmen, including Brunel.
She also
alleged that Brunel would bring girls as young as 12 to the United States and
pass them on to his friends, including Epstein. Brunel fiercely denied
the allegations.
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