Eight guilty of robbing Kardashian in Paris hotel

Eight people were found guilty yesterday of a violent robbery of Kim Kardashian in a Paris hotel in a $10m jewellery heist that left the celebrity traumatised.

- ALEX CROFT, BRYONY GOOCH

The verdict came after a four-week week trial that unfolded nearly a decade after the US influencer's harrowing ordeal. The high-profile case saw the Californian star break down in tears in the witness box of the French courtroom as she described her fear of rape and murder at the hands of the robbers.

Nine men and a woman were accused of carrying out, or aiding, the robbery of Kardashian, then 35, while she was alone in her room in the glamorous Hotel de Pourtales during a visit to the French capital for its 2016 fashion week. The more elderly suspects became known in France as "the grandpa robbers" and arrived in court in orthopaedic shoes while one leaned on a cane.

At the heart of the trial was Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, a veteran of Paris' criminal underworld. He admitted his involvement in the robbery but denied being the ringleader.

His DNA, found on the zip-ties used to bind Kardashian, cracked open the case. Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices, and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium. The loot was never found. Khedache claims he was only a foot soldier and blamed a mysterious "X" or "Ben" someone prosecutors say never existed.

Khedache begged the court for "a thousand pardons" in his final statement, written on a piece of paper because he has become deaf and mute. Prosecutors have asked for a 10-year sentence.

It was nearly three weeks into the trial when Kardashian arrived at the Palais de Justice to face the alleged robbers for the first time in nearly a decade.