‘I said a prayer to prepare myself’: Kim Kardashian gives harrowing testimony in Paris robbery trial
Hi, I’m Kim Kardashian,” she says.
The voice is instantly recognisable, of course – from endless hours of reality TV consumed by millions, from thousands of social media posts and parodies. She is, as ever, impeccably dressed: a sharp black suit, sparkling jewellery; poised, perfectly made up.
But this is no ordinary public appearance for the woman famous for being famous. On Tuesday, at the Palais de Justice – which houses France’s highest court – Kardashian has come to give crucial evidence in a case that revisits the harrowing crime she endured nearly a decade ago; the night she was bound and gagged, her hands zip-tied, her mouth taped shut, as she feared she would be raped, shot, and left for dead.
Kardashian’s highly anticipated appearance, she tells the packed courtroom, is to “tell my truth”. She is to testify against 10 men – most of them elderly, all with long criminal records – accused of kidnapping and robbing her on the night of 3 October 2016.
Twelve suspects were originally charged. One has since died, and another was excused due to illness. The French press dubbed them les papys braqueurs – “the grandpa robbers” – but prosecutors insist they are anything but harmless retirees. All deny the allegations.
More than $10m (£7.5m) worth of jewellery was stolen during what would be dubbed “the heist of the century” – a brazen attack that took place inside Kardashian’s luxury hotel room just before 3am, during her visit to Paris for Fashion Week.
The crime – along with its aftermath – was brutal. Kardashian tells the court she was held at gunpoint and, fearing sexual assault, began “saying a prayer”. She was naked under her robe. One man pulled her legs towards him on the bed; another held a gun to her. “I absolutely did think I was going to die,” she says.
At first, she thought the stomping on the stairs was her sister Kourtney and a friend returning late from a night out. She called out – “Hello? Hello? Who is it?” – but no one answered. Then masked men stormed in. Dressed as police, they demanded her jewellery and pointed to the diamond ring on her bedside table.
“He said, ‘Ring! Ring!’ and he pointed to his hand,” Kardashian recalls. They took the ring and hunted for the rest – a jewellery box worth millions. They zip-tied her hands and taped her mouth.
Her vulnerability, she explains, stemmed in part from a false sense of security. “We assumed that if we were in a hotel, it was safe, it was secure,” she says.
One of the men, she recalls, told her she would be fine “if I stayed quiet”. Another had dragged the concierge into her suite in handcuffs. “I thought it was some sort of terrorist attack,” says Kardashian.
“I have babies,” she pleaded. “I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home.”
She was carried to the bathroom and locked inside. She tells the court how she rubbed the tape binding her wrists against the sink in an effort to free herself, then hopped downstairs to find her friend and stylist, Simone Harouche. The pair hid on a balcony, terrified the attackers would return.
Harouche, who testified earlier in the trial, remembered Kardashian screaming, “I need to live. Take everything. I need to live.” She locked herself in a bathroom and texted Kardashian’s sister and bodyguard: “Something is very wrong.”
