Kim Kardashian ‘feared she would be raped and killed’ during Paris hotel robbery

Kim Kardashian has told a French court she feared she would be raped and killed during a 2016 armed robbery in Paris.

The TV and social media star gave evidence for the first time in the trial on Tuesday, confronting the men accused of tying her up at gunpoint in her hotel suite and stealing more than £4.5 million in jewellery.

She told the court she said a silent prayer — for her sister, her best friend and her family — as a masked man pulled her towards him in a hotel room.

Kardashian was wearing a bathrobe, her hands were zip-tied, and her mouth was taped.

“I was certain that was the moment that he was going to rape me,” she told the court on Tuesday. “I absolutely did think I was going to die.”

She said she was getting ready for bed when she heard stomping on the stairs. At first, she thought it was her sister Kourtney and a friend returning from a night out at Paris Fashion Week.

Then masked men stormed the room.

She grabbed her phone but did not know the French emergency number. She tried to call her sister and bodyguard, but one man stopped her. The men threw her on the bed, zip-tied her hands and pressed a gun to her.

“I have babies,” Kardashian said, according to her evidence. “I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home.”

She was carried into the bathroom. One man taped her mouth, and she was told she would be OK if she stayed quiet.

The last time Kardashian saw the men that police say robbed her, she was locked in the marble bathroom while masked assailants stole her jewellery.

At the time of the robbery, she was one of the most recognised women on the planet: a fashion icon, reality star and billionaire business mogul, she had mastered a new kind of celebrity — one broadcast in real time, post by post, to millions of followers.

But in the early hours of October 3 2016, that visibility became a weapon against her. Investigators believe the attackers followed her digital trail through images, timestamps and geotags and exploited them with old-school criminal methods.

Dressed in black with sparkling diamonds, Kardashian on Tuesday stood across from her mother, Kris Jenner, in the heavily secured courtroom. Her voice trembled as she thanked French authorities for “allowing me to share my truth”.

She described how the attackers arrived at her hotel disguised as police officers, dragging the concierge upstairs in handcuffs. “I thought it was some sort of terrorist attack,” she said.

One attacker gestured at her diamond ring. “He said, ‘Ring! Ring!’ and he pointed to his hand,” she recalled.

French prosecutors say the assailants — most in their 60s and 70s — were part of a seasoned criminal ring. Two defendants have admitted being at the scene. One claims he did not know who she was.

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 were no harmless retirees.

They face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and membership of a criminal gang, offences that carry the potential for life imprisonment.

After the men fled, Kardashian rubbed the tape against the bathroom sink to free her hands. She hopped downstairs, still bound, to find her friend and stylist, Simone Harouche. Fearing the robbers might return, they went onto the balcony and hid in bushes. While lying there, Kardashian called her mother.

Earlier in the trial, Harouche recalled hearing Kardashian scream from upstairs: “‘I need to live.’ That is what she kept on saying, ‘Take everything. I need to live.’”

Harouche locked herself in a bathroom and texted Kardashian’s sister and bodyguard: “Something is very wrong.” Later, she heard Kardashian hopping down the stairs, her ankles still bound. “She was beside herself,” Harouche said. “She just was screaming.”

Judge David de Pas asked whether Kardashian had made herself a target by posting images of herself with “jewels of great value”. Harouche rejected the premise, saying: “Just because a woman wears jewellery, that doesn’t make her a target. That’s like saying that because a woman wears a short skirt that she deserves to be raped.”

After the robbery, critics like designer Karl Lagerfeld criticised Kardashian for flaunting her wealth, with Lagerfeld telling the Associated Press she was “too public” with her jewellery. But as details of the heist emerged, public opinion became more sympathetic.

Even as she gave evidence about her trauma on Tuesday, journalists received a press release touting her Paris courthouse appearance: “Kim Kardashian stuns… wearing a show-stopping 1.5 million dollar diamond necklace by Samer Halimeh New York, featuring 80 flawless diamonds.”

She told the court her house in Los Angeles was robbed shortly afterwards in what appeared to be a copycat attack. Without security guards, she said, “I can’t even sleep at night.” She now keeps between four and six guards at home.

“I started to get this phobia of going out,” Kardashian said. “This experience really changed everything for us.”

At the time of the 2016 robbery, she said, her bodyguard was staying in a separate hotel: “We assumed that if we were in a hotel it was safe, it was secure.”

Kardashian, who is studying to become a lawyer, said she was grateful for the opportunity “to tell my truth” in the packed Paris courtroom.

“This is my closure,” she said. “This is me putting this, hopefully, to rest.”