Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said around 10 new suspected victims have emerged in the French investigation into the criminal network of late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to the broadcaster RTL on Sunday, Beccuau revealed that about 20 potential victims contacted authorities following her public appeal for witnesses in February, reports Al Jazeera.
Whilst investigators already recognised some of these individuals, the prosecutor noted that “new victims come forward, ones we didn’t know at all”.
“There are around 10 of them,” Beccuau added, stating that “The choice we’ve made for the time being is to listen to these victims”. She explained that because several of these women reside abroad, investigators are currently coordinating meetings in Paris to accommodate their travel schedules.
France initiated this human trafficking inquiry after the United States Justice Department released a substantial cache of files regarding the disgraced financier.
French magistrates now seek to identify any offences committed within France or involving French perpetrators who facilitated Epstein’s crimes.
As part of this intensified effort, the legal team has returned to Epstein’s personal electronics and records. “We have also once again pulled out Epstein’s computers, his telephone records, his address books,” Beccuau said, further noting that her team would be “making requests for international assistance”.
Epstein died in a US prison in August 2019 while facing charges for trafficking underage girls for sex. In September of that year, French investigators conducted a search of Epstein’s luxury apartment located in Paris.
According to the AFP news agency, some victims involved in the current probe had previously provided testimony during investigations into the former modelling agency chief Gerald Marie and the late model agent Jean-Luc Brunel. In March, 15 women formally urged French authorities to examine Marie’s suspected links to Epstein.
Authorities arrested Brunel in 2020 following allegations that he sexually abused minors and procured victims for Epstein, but he was found dead in prison in 2022.
Additionally, two former models informed AFP that a modelling scout named Daniel Siad groomed them with the intention of delivering them to Epstein in the 2000s and Marie in the 1990s.
