Ten people nicknamed the “grandpa robbers” by French media are to go on trial charged with stealing jewellery worth millions of euros from the American reality TV star Kim Kardashian when she attended Paris fashion week in 2016.
The suspects, whose ages range from 35 to 78, will appear in a court in the French capital on Monday afternoon at the start of a month-long trial in which Kardashian, 44, will testify in May.
In perhaps the biggest robbery of an individual in France in 20 years, Kardashian was tied up and held hostage at gunpoint in her bedroom by armed men dressed as police officers in the early hours of 3 October 2016. They escaped with up to an estimated €10m in jewellery.
Kardashian, a billionaire celebrity influencer and business owner, later said on her reality TV show that she had feared she would be raped and murdered by the masked gunmen who entered her rented suite in the city centre.
Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records and underworld nicknames including Old Omar and Blue Eyes that recall the old-school French bandits of 1960s and 70s films noirs. Prosecutors argue they were armed and dangerous and had carefully planned the crime after meetings in a Paris bar.
At the time of the robbery, Kardashian was without security protection and sitting alone in her bedroom at an exclusive building, known as a “no address” site, where celebrities often rent sumptuous suites.
Her bodyguard had instead accompanied her sister, the fellow reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian, to a Paris nightclub after the sisters had spent the day at fashion shows being photographed.
At that time, Kardashian routinely posted most of her daily movements and whereabouts on social media, where she also displayed her jewellery, including a large 18.88-carat diamond engagement ring given to her by her then husband, the rapper Kanye West, which was estimated to be worth $4m. Those details on social media may have facilitated the thieves’ targeting of her.
A group of five armed men, all over the age of 60, are alleged to have arrived by bicycle or on foot and impersonated police officers to enter the building just after 2am.
They allegedly held the concierge at gunpoint and forced him to lead them to Kardashian’s suite, where one man pulled a gun on her.
Kardashian told police that the man spoke in “a very strong French accent” in English, telling her to hand over her diamond engagement ring, shouting: “The ring, the ring.” She was held at gunpoint, her arms and feet were tied and her mouth was taped. The men fled the room in less than 10 minutes after taking the ring and other jewels.
Credit: THEGUARDIAN