Kim Kardashian told a Paris courtroom she believed she would be raped and murdered during a violent robbery in 2016.
The Californian media personality was left traumatised after she was tied up and gagged by a gang of burglars, as they stole millions of dollars worth of jewellery from the central Paris apartment where she was staying during Paris Fashion Week in 2016.
Kardashian cried while telling the court how the ordeal “changed everything” as she began giving evidence in the trial of 10 people accused of subjecting her to a terrifying episode.
She said she “said a prayer to prepare myself” as she was certain she was about to be raped by one of the men.
“The robe opens up and everything is exposed on my bottom half,” she says. “I was on the bed and the other one had the gun up to me and at that point I was certain that was when they were going to shoot me, and it was over.”
Earlier, stylist Simone Harouche told the courtroom she heard the star screaming upstairs in the apartment during the robbery.
“What I heard specifically was ‘I have babies and I need to live, take everything, I need to live,” Harouche said.
Eight of the ten defendants – who face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy – deny any involvement in the case.
The Independent will bring you live updates from inside the courtroom.
Kardashian: I was told I would be OK if I was quiet
Kim Kardashian has discussed in more detail her encounter with the suspects, revealing that she was told she would be OK if she “just shut up”.
“I only saw one (suspect) holding a weapon,” she told the court,
“I felt like, because the guy that tied me up saw how frantic I was and wouldn’t get close to me – almost whispering: ‘Shhh, are you okay? – I felt in that moment that he was (like) a father.
“I felt like he wanted me to know that I would be okay if I just shut up. And then they started arguing. I didn’t know what they said, as it was in French, and then he went from ‘Shh’ to aggressively grabbing my legs – so I thought maybe I got it wrong.”
She told the court she was “not hit” but instead was “grabbed, and dragged into the other room, and thrown onto the floor”.
Kardashian added: “(The gun) was pointed towards me to get me to go from room to room, and it was pointed toward me on the bed at the end.”
Kardashian recalls hiding in the bushes and calling mother, Kris Jenner
Kim Kardashian’s emotional account of the violent robbery in early October 2016 has continued.
She has told the court of the moments after the robbers left, when she hid in the bushes and called her mother, Kris Jenner.
“When I got downstairs, Simone [Harouche, Kardashian’s stylist who testified this morning] let me know that she had called my sister Kourtney, and her and the security were on the way,” she said.
“We weren’t sure at that point if they were going to come back. So, we ran on the balcony to hide in the bushes.
“I remember calling my mom from the bushes to let her know what happened. And then I think while we were waiting for my security, we were trying to come up with a plan, if we should jump from the window, as it was just a one-storey building.”
I feared Kourtney would see me dead on the bed – Kardashian
Zoë Beaty reports from the Palais de Justice.
Kim Kardashian says she feared her sister Kourtney Kardashian, who was out at the time with the family’s security guard, would find her dead on the bed.
“I thought about my sister, thought she would walk in and see me shot dead and have that memory in her forever.”
She said a prayer that her sister would “have an OK life” after discovering her body.
“Then I waited a few minutes. After a few minutes I didn’t hear anything, so I scootched over to the sink, and it was a marble sink so I cut my ties.”
Kardashian ignoring the defendants sat just metres away
Kim Kardashian is sitting barely two metres away from Aomar Ait Khedache – the man accused of being the ringleader of the gang, who is deaf and mute.
Khedache, who admits playing a role in the heist including tying Kardashian up, allegedly also held a gun in Kardashian’s face.
Yunice Abbas, the 71-year-old who has spoken openly in French media about his role in the robbery – and even written a memoir about it – is sat right behind her.
According to a BBC reporter in the room, Kardashian has not looked at either of the defendants once, staring straight at the judges instead.
Pictured: Court sketch of Kardashian’s friend and stylist Simone Harouche
Kardashian: I thought I was going to die – now I can’t sleep at night
Zoë Beaty reports from the Palais de Justice.
Kim Kardashian has said she “absolutely did think” she was going to die when she was thrown onto the bed by two men dressed in police uniforms.
She now “can’t sleep at night” without “multiple security” personnel to protect her.
“I need between four and six night security for me to feel safe,” she tells the court.
Kardashian describes moment she thought she would be raped and killed
Zoë Beaty reports from the Palais de Justice.
After two men had burst into her Paris apartment along with the handcuffed concierge, Kim Kardashian says she became “pretty hysterical”.
They took her through the apartment to search for her jewellery.
Kardashian begins to cry as she explains what happened next. “So they called me back in the room once they realised that they had everything that I had and they threw me on the bed.”
She says she then began desperately pleading with the handcuffed concierge – the only person she knew spoke English. “I said, ‘I have babies, please translate to them, I have babies please, I have to make it home, they can take everything I just have to make it home’.”
Kardashian tells the court that “said a prayer to prepare myself” as she was certain that she was about to be raped by one of the men. “He grabs my legs and pulls me towards him on the bed, and I’m naked under my robe.
“The robe opens up and everything is exposed on my bottom half,” she says. “I was certain that was the moment he was going to rape me.I was on the bed and the other one had the gun up to me and at that point I was certain that was when they were going to shoot me, and it was over.”
Kardashian begins recounting the ordeal
Kardashian has began sharing details of the ordeal she went through in early October 2016.
“We were leaving the next morning and I was just packing up, at 3am I was just getting ready to go to bed,” she says.
Two people who she believed were police officers then came into her bedroom, she tells the court.
Kardashian says she was “very confused” when they walked in because she was “just about to fall asleep”.
Naked and wearing only a robe, she was flustered when the intruders barged in.
The night receptionist, Abderrahmane Ouatiki, had been handcuffed and was with the two men. He told Kardashian he did not know what was happening, according to the BBC.
“I understand now how shocked he was and he was just a victim like myself and we were in this together,” Kardashian added.
Pictured: Kardashian smiles and waves at cameras before entering courthouse
Tearful Kardashian says 2016 Paris trip ‘changed everything’
Zoë Beaty reports from the courthouse:
Kim Kardashian has begun by speaking of Paris, the city where she is currently testifying – and which she was robbed in nearly nine years ago.
“Paris was always a place I loved so much,” she says. “I used to walk around the city when I woke up in the middle of the night, or early in the morning I’d take walks around the city, and always felt really safe.
“We would window shop and stop at little hotels for hot chocolate. It was a magical place.”
“Then when I came to fashion week that trip, it really changed everything.” She pauses to wipe her eyes, crying as she begins to describe her ordeal.
Source: independent.co.uk