the times | Wednesday February 23 2022 3times2
Kimberley, who now runs her own
model agency in LA, says that she
wrote to police after Brunel’s arrest,
but didn’t hear back. “I guessed that
was because I’m outside the statute of
limitations in France.”
The New Zealander Zoë Brock, who
I first met in a Milan models’
residence during my 1998
investigation, was 17 or 18 when she
escaped Brunel’s advances in 1991. “I
was placed in Brunel’s apartment
because I was young,” she says. “I
thought it would be the safest place for
me.” But when Brunel returned from a
month-long trip, she discovered that
he was watching underage girls
through a peephole in the bathroom
wall. Then he summoned her into his
bedroom and told the teenager that
she would have to have sex with him.
When Brock rejected his advances,
she says that Brunel created a rumour
about her being a coke addict,
seriously damaging her reputation and
career.
“The worst thing was that I left
behind an underage girl who he went
on to assault many times. She still
won’t speak about what happened.”
Brock wasn’t shocked when she
heard the news of Brunel’s death.
“I actually feel great about him
being dead. I’m sad for the other
victims who feel robbed, but there was
never going to be an admission of guilt
or an apology, just victim shaming and
blaming... He has spared us all that.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether he
killed himself or was murdered, his
last moments were completely and
utterly wretched either way. What’s
important is that he’s relegated to
history as a paedophile and trafficker.
Let him and Epstein be testament to
what happens to bad guys, even if it
takes us years to get them.”*Sophia is a pseudonymagency who weren’t so lucky ended up
having psychiatric treatment. When I
confronted him with the allegations,
he told me to look instead at another
agent, Gérald Marie, who my team
was also investigating. It was during
the course of that investigation when
Marie sexually assaulted me. While
exposing this systemic abuse, I had
now fallen victim to it myself.
Marie has said in response: “It would
not be appropriate for me to comment
at this time on the allegations of
historic wrongdoing being made
against me, other than to make it clear
that I categorically deny them.”
More recently Tom Hahn, the LA
Models founder, told me abuse in the
industry has been systemic over
decades, with Brunel and Epstein
central to the scandal. “I was in the
business for 25 years and this was
going on right up until the Epstein
thing blew up.” He describes a
criminal racket where hundreds of
young models simply vanished.
Jo Kimberley, a former British
model from Maidenhead, has also
made complaints against Brunel. She
explains how he invited her to dinner
and back to his apartment with other
models afterwards. “I had half a drink
and the next thing I knew I was
throwing up in the toilet. I was trying
to get away and told Jean-Luc to get
me a cab but I was still being sick and
the driver refused to take me. Jean-Luc
told me to go back upstairs and that I
could sleep in the spare room. I was
looking around for something to put in
front of the door because I didn’t feel
safe. I must have blacked out because I
woke up naked and unable to
remember a thing with Jean-Luc
naked next to me. To this day I don’t
know 100 per cent what happened but
I would say it’s highly likely that he did
rape me. Why else would he be in bed
naked with an unconscious woman?”Jean-Luc Brunel,
right, with Ghislaine
Maxwell and Jeffrey
Epstein. Above: in 2001.
Above right: Thysia
Huisman. Above left:
Lisa Brinkworth“When I returned to Brussels my
agent was really angry with me. Jean-
Luc had called her to complain that I’d
left. She told me, ‘You’re a stupid girl
throwing away a golden opportunity.’
She made me feel as though it was my
fault. I carried on working for a bit but
I was like a zombie. I had to quit.”
What makes Huisman so angry is
that in 1988 60 Minutes aired serious
allegations against Brunel, then the
boss of Karins agency, and his partner
(also now deceased) Claude Haddad.
“She should have known what he
was when she sent me to him,” says
Huisman, who after recently learning
of Brunel’s links with Epstein
confronted Eggermont. “I asked her,
‘Do you remember me telling you
what happened? He raped me.’ She
said, ‘You’re mistaken, he would never
do that.’ That made me so angry.”
Sophia*, another victim in the case,
has also found it hard to process the
news about Brunel. “It is very hard on
the accusers that there will be no trial.
Every one of us would have had the
possibility to confront him, look him
in the eye and tell him of the betrayal,
the shock and the humiliation we felt
when he abused us.
“I would have told Jean-Luc Brunel
the story of that beautiful au pair girl
I was in Paris who he raped in the
spring of 1979. That girl felt alone and
insecure and Brunel promised to
protect her that weekend.”
Sophia, then 20, had just arrived in
the French capital and was excited
about her first shoot. On meeting
Brunel and the other models at his
apartment, Sophia was told that she
was going to do a shoot in the
countryside. “We are going to a castle,”
one of the girls told her. “It is very
beautiful. You will enjoy yourself.”
The party travelled late at night,
stopping at a restaurant on the way.
“The men were talking about sexand I was feeling uncomfortable. I
wanted to leave then. Jean-Luc told
me, ‘Don’t worry, I will look after
you.’” They arrived at a castle in the
middle of the night. Sophia was given
a room with “lots of coloured silk”.
“I went to sleep but was woken up
by Jean-Luc coming into my room. He
took me outside to take pictures
against the car lights and then started
to touch me. He said that I could
easily make 30,000 francs a month. I
said, ‘If it has to be like this, I would
rather carry on being an au pair.’ I ran
past coats of armour up a wooden
staircase, tumbling as I went, and
locked myself in my room.”
Minutes later Sophia heard tapping
at her door. “I was relieved when the
footsteps went away,” she says. But
then Brunel emerged through a
cupboard door separating Sophia’s
room and the room next to hers. “I
had nowhere to go and he raped me.”
I knew about Jean-Luc Brunel back
in 1998 when I investigated allegations
against him for a BBC documentary
into modelling industry abuse. I heard
countless stories about how he
drugged vulnerable teenage models
and raped them. One model told me
how she managed to get away from
him while two other girls at herJean-Luc
Brunel’s
suicide was
an act of
cowardice
Epstein’s French connection
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