Modelling scout linked to Epstein found dead in Paris

A modelling scout linked to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home.

Daniel Siad, 69, was discovered on Monday in Colombes, a north-west suburb of Paris, the Nanterre prosecutor's office confirmed to the BBC.

An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening, the office said, adding that a post-mortem examination would be carried out.

Siad's name appeared thousands of times in the Epstein files released by the US government. He denied knowing of the threat Epstein had posed.

His lawyer stressed that Siad, who had been the subject of several complaints in France including allegations of rape, had "never been prosecuted".

"He is dead and he was innocent," Ménya Arab-Tigrine said in a statement.

Epstein victim Anya - not her real name - previously told the BBC that Siad had introduced her to Epstein.

"It was a complete set-up," she said, describing Siad as "essentially a professional trafficker".

During one email to Epstein released in the files, Siad wrote in badly spelled English: "In This busyness I feel like fisherman some time I cache quick, some time no fish."

However, in a recent CNN interview, Siad said he had not known the women were being abused by Epstein. "I trusted him, I believed this guy is a professional person," he said.

The first complaints against Siad in France were filed in February. He denied wrongdoing in multiple recent media interviews, telling BFMTV in May: "I have never raped anyone in my life."

Lawyers for the former model who made the first complaint said they were "stunned" by his death.

"We are at a loss for words to describe the anger and sadness we feel," they said, with alleged victims "denied a criminal trial".

The lawyers said they felt "immense anger toward the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office, which announced last February that it was opening an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's French accomplices".

They accused the office of "scandalous" inaction which they said demonstrated "the public authorities' contempt for victims of sexual crimes, even when these crimes are linked to the human trafficking network established by Epstein and his accomplices".

Another former model who gave a deposition to police in June as part of the investigation into Siad told the BBC his death meant any information he might have had about Epstein was now lost.

"An important link in the chain has just vanished into thin air, without there even having been a chance to recover the information Daniel Siad might have possessed, given that he was never questioned,"