Kim Kardashian trial live: Star’s stylist ‘heard screaming’ and feared she was being raped – UK Times

Zoë Beaty reports from court:

“Kim was very free at the time,” Harouche, who is dressed in a black jacket and has shoulder-length blonde hair and speaks to the court via a translator, explains. “And we never thought being in our hotel room that we should ever fear for our safety.”

She responds to a question from the chief judge, or Monsieur le President, who leads today’s proceedings: “Just because a woman wears jewellery, doesn’t make her a target. That’s like saying just because a woman wears a short skirt that she deserves to be raped.”

Zoë Beaty reports from court:

Harouche tells the court she and Kardashian found safety and waited for Kardashian’s bodyguard, Pascal.

“It felt like a long time we were there, but maybe it was only a couple of minutes before Pascal arrived.

“Then he arrived and we felt OK” – she taps her hand over her heart – “that we could be OK.”

“I can say that it was like Kim was not in her body. You know, when you’re in so much shock from trauma? I was still very afraid because I still didn’t know who the men were. And then a couple of hours after that the police then arrived.”

Police didn’t take an account from Harouche at the time, she says.

“I was confused as to why they didn’t want more of a statement from me at the time. There was a lot happening from the apartment and the police were more focused on what happened to Kim.”

Harouche says she “just wanted to go home”.

Zoë Beaty reports from the courthouse:

Simone Harouche has recalled texting Kourtney Kardashian to say that “something was very wrong” after hearing a soung of “terror” from Kim.

“A couple of minutes went by, I was still hearing things upstairs,” she tells the court. “Then I heard the footsteps coming down the stairs. I thought that they were coming for me next.

“I was very afraid for what was happening to me friend upstairs. I had no idea what was going on and I was scared that she was raped or violated. I thought the worst.”

The noises stopped. “I thought maybe they had gone. Then I heard Kim screaming. She was saying my name, and ‘are they gone?’

“I heard her coming down the stairs, but like hopping down the stairs.

“She came into my room and she had tape around her. She was wearing a light robe with nothing underneath, it was all messed up. I thought she could have been raped or very violated.”

Zoë Beaty reports from the courthouse:

Simone Harouche has taken the stand. She’s a fashion stylist from Los Angeles hired by Kim Kardashian for Paris fashion week that year. Not only has she worked with Kim, she tells the court, she’s also been friends with Kim for a long time.

“That’s to say I know her very well. I know her sounds, I know her mannerisms; I know when she’s happy and more serious,” she says. “We’ve been friends since we were little girls.”

“Thank you for allowing me to come here today and speak my piece,” she begins.

The pair had been attending fashion shows all day of the robbery.

“Kim said that she was going to possibly have dinner, a few friends were maybe going to come over.

“I was in and out of my room packing, and then finally around 11.30pm I went to my room to bed.

“I was in bed at the time I had heard a couple of friends come over, they were in the room next to me. I went back to sleep. It was normal background noise.

“It was quiet for an hour or two. Then I woke up to a very different sound.”

When she woke up, she heard a “sound that I had never heard from Kim. It was terror.”

“What I heard specifically was ‘I have babies and I need to live, take everything, I need to live.’”

Special correspondent Zoe Beaty reports from inside the courtroom:

We’re now inside the Palais de Justice, where a thick line of camera-heavy broadcast media has set up behind red tape under the stone-carved arched hallways outside court Voltaire, where the trial is taking place.

The Court D’Appel’s inners are grand. The testimonies are heard below impossibly high ceilings adorned with gilded Neoclassical paintings and carvings; in the press transmission room enormous brass chandeliers hang over around 20 journalists from all over the world.

While there’s no real indication of exactly when Kim Kardashian will appear in court to give evidence today, court is due to sit at 10am. A member of the public who has attended a few days of the trial so far says that it could be a long shift – previous days, she says, have begun at 9am and sat until 8pm.

The trial of ten people alleged to have robbed Kim Kardashian has been ongoing since late April, when a number of defendants took the stand.

Jurors have heard how police tracked down Aomar Ait Khedache – believed to be the ringleader of the group, which is mostly composed of older men – after he had left DNA on a piece of duct tape and the cable ties used to bind Ms Kardashian.

Mr Khedache admitted taking part in the heist, but denied playing a leading role.

It heard of the mistakes which were made by the robbers throughout the heist, including Yunice Abbas, who has admitted his role in the robbery, allegedly dropping a bag of jewellery after he fell while cycling from the scene.

A necklace was left behind, which was found and reported to police. It was the only one of the stolen items that was ever found.

Jurors were also told that the Madar family, including suspect Gary Madar, had worked with the Kardashian family for years. Ms Kardashian suggested Gary Madar may have fed information to the gang which assisted the robbery.

Watch live as Kim Kardashian arrives in court on Tuesday (13 May) to testify in the trial of ten people accused of violently robbing her 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.

Eight of the ten defendants – who face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy – deny any involvement in the case. The can has been dubbed the “grandpa robbers” trial due to five of them being pensioners.

Ms Kardashian will now testify over the ordeal, which she has spoken about openly in the past nine years.

Watch a live feed of the French courthouse here:

The queues of journalists eager to secure a coveted spot in the courtroom has been forming since around 6am, when I arrived at the Palais de Justice this morning.

For the last couple of hours there’s been a lot of chatter, and a lot of hushed anticipation but the only real action has been the frequent dashes to the coffee shop across the road.

The entrance for foreign press, I’m told, is also where for the last two days, the defendants have entered the court building.

There are 10 accused in total, mostly elderly men, who, despite the serious crimes they’re accused of – and prolific criminal records – remain at liberty.

It’s true: as the line inches towards security at around 8.45am, one of the defendants, Christiane ‘Cathy’ Glotin, 79, the only woman facing prosecution, casually strolls past.

She’s a small, almost unnoticeable figure today dressed in blue jeans and a matching denim jacket, trainers and a surgical mask, presumably to conceal her identity.