Ghislaine Maxwell’s family says they’re afraid for her safety after Jean-Luc Brunel, the modelling agent close to now-deceased Jeffrey Epstein, was found hanging in his Paris jail cell on Saturday, as per New York Post. 

Ian Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell’s sibling told New York Post “It’s really shocking. Another death by hanging in a high-security prison. My reaction is one of total shock and bewilderment”. Maxwell spoke in an interview from his home saying that the entire family feared for Ghislaine Maxwell’s safety at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, where she’s being held. 

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Maxwell was convicted last year on sex trafficking charges. She allegedly introduced Brunel to Epstein, the billionaire paedophile who himself was found dead from hanging in his Manhattan lockup in 2019.  

The New York Post reported that after her conviction, Maxwell had to see a psychiatrist in prison and was in a room where everything was recorded. Ian Maxwell noted, “Despite the psychiatrist advising to the contrary, she was deemed a suicide risk and they are continuing to wake her up every 15 minutes in the night. It’s a complete violation of prisoner rights and human rights”, as per New York Post. 

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Ian Maxwell also continued to insist that his sister is not suicidal and as per New York Post, he raised the question of why Epstein and Brunel, who’re both dead from apparent suicides, weren’t on any of their respective suicide watches while in jail. 

Notably, Ghislaine Maxwell has been gunning for another day in court and in January officially asked for a retrial. The decision hinged on the fact that a juror had told the media that he used the personal experience of being sexually abused to influence his peers to reach a guilty verdict. 

Meanwhile, Brunel, who ran Karin Models in Paris was in charge of securing women for Epstein. He was awaiting trial when prison authorities found him hanged. As per New York Post, the French prison has not reported any breach, and have launched an investigation into the cause of death.