France listens to 10 ‘new’ people suspected of being abused by Epstein: Prosecutor | Human Trafficking Issues

French prosecutors are investigating possible charges against French criminals who helped Epstein’s crimes.

A French prosecutor has revealed that around 10 new suspects have come forward in the European investigation into US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking to the RTL reporter, Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Sunday that about 20 suspected victims were identified later, in February, and encouraged those who may be offended to speak out.

Although some are already known to investigators, he said, “new victims have come, which we don’t even know”.

“There are about 10 of them,” he added, “The decision we have made at this point is to listen to the victims.”

“Many of them are abroad, so the investigators will try to set up meetings to coordinate when they can come to Paris,” the public prosecutor said.

After the release of a database of files from the investigation of the money laundering by the United States Department of Justice, France reopened the human trafficking investigation.

French prosecutors want to investigate possible crimes in France or involving French criminals who led Epstein’s crimes.

“We have also released Mr Epstein’s computers, his telephones, his address books,” he said, adding that his team “will ask for international assistance”.

Epstein died in a US prison in August 2019 while facing charges of selling teenage girls for sex. The following month, French investigators searched Epstein’s luxury apartment in Paris.

The alleged victims have already been identified by investigators and women who have spoken to the investigation including the former head of the European model agency Gerald Marie and the late co-ordinator Jean-Luc Brunel, reports AFP.

Fifteen women in March urged France to investigate Marie for possible links to Epstein.

French authorities arrested Brunel in 2020 after accusing him of abusing minors and finding Epstein victims. He was found dead in prison in 2022.

Two ex-boyfriends told AFP that a photo scout named Daniel Siad groomed them with the intention of handing them over to Epstein in one event in the 2000s, and Marie in another in the 1990s.