Thysia Huisman is a Dutch former model who has publicly testified about being groomed and sexually assaulted by Jean-Luc Brunel in the 1980s. Huisman was recruited as a teenager in the Netherlands and flown to Paris with promises of a modeling career. She has stated that Brunel sexually assaulted her shortly after her arrival and then sabotaged her modeling career when she resisted further exploitation.

Born around 1970 in the Netherlands, Huisman was recruited as a teenager by modeling scouts who promised opportunities in Paris. She was connected to Jean-Luc Brunel, who was already a powerful figure in the modeling world. According to her public testimony, Brunel sexually assaulted her shortly after she arrived in Paris. When she resisted further sexual exploitation, Brunel retaliated by sabotaging her modeling career, spreading negative information about her to other agencies and effectively blacklisting her from the industry.

While Huisman's assault occurred in the 1980s—before Brunel's documented close relationship with Epstein—her testimony is significant because it establishes Brunel's decades-long pattern of predatory behavior. By the 1990s and 2000s, Brunel had become one of Epstein's key facilitators, using his modeling agencies to recruit young women who were then trafficked to Epstein.

Huisman came forward publicly in 2019 after Epstein's arrest, testifying to French investigators. In December 2020, Brunel was arrested in Paris on charges related to rape and trafficking of minors. He died by apparent suicide in February 2022 while awaiting trial.

Sources

60 Minutes Australia (2019); France 2 television (2019); Dutch press: NRC Handelsblad, De Volkskrant