Epstein used modelling agent to recruit girls, Brazilian women tell BBC. 4 hours ago. Luiz Fernando ToledoBBC News Brasil. BBC / Anselmo Cunha. Warning: This story contains graphic sexual descriptions.. “If I had disobeyed my mother and gone to New York, what might have happened to me?” asks Gláucia Fekete.. In 2004, as a 16-year-old living in the Brazilian countryside, she was taking her first steps in the modelling world.. She says French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel visited her family home, to persuade her mother to let her go to a modelling contest in Ecuador. He later killed himself in prison, accused of rape, sexual assault and recruiting girls for the late US financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.. Back then, they didn’t know who Brunel was; they had been introduced by a famous Brazilian scout.. A BBC News Brasil investigation has found evidence that Brunel used modelling agencies linked to him at the time to actively seek out young women and girls from South America for Epstein, and to arrange visas for them to travel to the US.. Another Brazilian woman, who says she had a relationship with Epstein, showed the BBC her US visa. It named one of Brunel’s agencies as her sponsor, even though she says she never did any modelling work for him and the travel documents were arranged solely so that she could visit Epstein.. US Department of Justice. Gláucia’s mother was suspicious of Brunel, but he seemed “very charming” and eventually she agreed her daughter could go to Ecuador without her. The teenager travelled with Brunel’s team to Guayaquil for the Models New Generation competition. At the time, local newspapers reported that the participants were between 15 and 19 years old.. Gláucia says the competition passed without any major problems, although she grew suspicious when she was not allowed to contact her family.. Another contestant, from Western Europe, who was 16 at the time, remembers how Brunel’s behaviour struck her as odd. She asked not to be named, so we are referring to her as Laura.. “It was weird how he behaved and was always hanging out with the young Brazilian girls… He was behaving like a clown and only hanging out with quite young girls,” she says.. Laura believes that while the competition was “legit” and well organised, “he knew exactly which girls were vulnerable”.. “He seemed to control their finances,” she says. “The girls from Brazil and East European countries seemed to be the prime target.”. Gláucia says that towards the end of the trip, Brunel offered to fly her to New York “to take part in shows” with all expenses paid. At that point they had to contact her mother, Barbara, for permission.. Fekete family archive /BBC / Anselmo Cunha. Barbara’s response: “No. Not a chance.. “They were only looking for children, minors,” Barbara says. “Unfortunately they found my daughter.”. She forbade Gláucia from any more involvement in modelling and cut ties with Brunel’s network.. “It really was a narrow escape,” sa
