Thysia Huisman still remembers the moment the room started spinning—her champagne glass barely touched, yet her body betrayed her, heavy and helpless as the powerful modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel carried her to his bed. Just 18, fresh from the Netherlands chasing runway dreams in Paris, she woke to the nightmare of him on top of her, raping her after drugging her drink in his lavish apartment. In haunting accounts shared with investigators and media, the Dutch former model accused Brunel—Jeffrey Epstein’s close associate and alleged supplier of young women to his sex-trafficking network—of this brutal assault in 1991. Despite reporting him years later to spark justice for others, Brunel died by suicide in a French prison in 2022 while awaiting trial on rape and trafficking charges, robbing Thysia and fellow survivors of their day in court. Her courage helped expose a dark web of exploitation hidden behind glamour—but how many more stories remain untold?
Thysia Huisman still vividly remembers the moment the room began to spin—her champagne glass had barely touched her lips, yet her body betrayed her, growing heavy and helpless as the powerful modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel carried her to his bed. At just 18 years old, freshly arrived from the Netherlands with dreams of the runway in Paris, she awoke to the nightmare of him on top of her, raping her after drugging her drink in his luxurious apartment. In haunting accounts shared with investigators and the media, the Dutch former model accused Brunel—Jeffrey Epstein’s close associate and alleged supplier of young women to his sex-trafficking network—of this brutal assault in 1991. Though she reported him years later in hopes of securing justice for others, Brunel took his own life in a French prison in 2022 while awaiting trial on rape and trafficking charges, denying Thysia and fellow survivors their day in court. Her courage helped expose a dark web of exploitation concealed beneath the glamour of fashion.
The incident occurred in September 1991, just days after Thysia arrived in Paris to pursue her modeling career. She was placed in an apartment arranged by Brunel, who at the time wielded significant influence in the industry through agencies like Karin Models. According to her detailed accounts in interviews with The Guardian, the Associated Press, and other outlets, on that fateful night Brunel offered her champagne. She took only a few sips, but soon the room spun and her limbs went numb. Brunel carried her to the bedroom, ignoring her feeble attempts to resist. When she regained consciousness, she realized she had been raped. Devastated, Thysia left the apartment shortly afterward and soon quit modeling entirely. The trauma persisted for years, leading to depression, heavy partying, and substance abuse as she tried to escape the memories. She later recounted these experiences in her 2020 book “Close-Up,” published in the Netherlands, where she first publicly detailed the assault.
Brunel’s name resurfaced prominently in 2019 amid renewed scrutiny following Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest. Thysia chose to testify to French police, even though she knew her own case might fall outside the statute of limitations. She hoped her testimony would encourage other victims to come forward. Brunel was arrested at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport in December 2020 upon returning from abroad. He faced charges of rape of minors over 15, sexual harassment, and aggravated human trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation. Prosecutors suspected him of assaulting multiple victims—both minors and adults—and of aiding Epstein by recruiting, transporting, and housing young women.
Thysia described feeling “tears of joy” upon hearing of his arrest, calling it the best Christmas present she could have received. But in February 2022, while detained in Paris’s La Santé Prison awaiting trial, Brunel was found hanged in his cell at age 75. His death, ruled a suicide and eerily similar to Epstein’s in 2019, robbed many victims of the chance to confront him in court. Thysia expressed shock and anger: after years of fighting for accountability, the door to justice had slammed shut once again.
Thysia’s story, alongside the accounts of others, revealed how the fashion industry’s sheen of glamour masked predatory behavior. Young women, filled with ambition and hope, were lured with promises of success only to fall into the hands of powerful figures like Brunel. Though he is gone, voices like Thysia’s continue to speak out, ensuring that these once-hidden crimes are no longer buried in silence.
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