A new podcast has launched, part of the Mail’s award-winning ‘The Trial’ series, which looks at the elderly masterminds who stand accused of enacting the 2016 robbery of Kim Kardashian in her Paris hotel room.
Hosted by the Mail’s acclaimed crime correspondent Caroline Cheetham and reporter in Paris Nick Fagge, the first episode of this new series lays the groundwork for the long-awaited trial of 10 suspects, dubbed the ‘grandpa gang’ by French media.
During Paris Fashion Week in 2016, men posing as police officers entered the hotel of Kim Kardashian at gunpoint and proceeded to gag the half-naked celebrity, robbing her room of 10 million dollars worth of jewellery.
Leaving Ms Kardashian tied up in the bathtub, the robbers fled the scene on bikes, with police called after the TV star escaped her binds and called them from the room of her stylist next door.
After providing a statement, Ms Kardashian fled France and an investigation into who had staged the heist quickly began to gain pace.
As crime correspondent Fagge described: ‘We found out today, the first day of the trial, how this all began.
‘A celebrity fixer known as Gary Madar, one of the men on trial, provided information on Kim Kardashian’s movements. In particular, when she was not with her bodyguard.
‘Madar knew this because it was his brother, Michael, who was employed as her chauffeur while she was in Paris.
Cheetham added: ‘The police say he passed the information to a man called Flo Heroui, who owned a bar [the suspects frequented].
‘The gang members were then tracked down and their association was discovered by tracking their movements and mobile phone locations.
‘Some of them were identified quickly, from DNA left on zip ties they had used to tie up Kim Kardashian.’
The French media labeled the suspects the ‘grandpa gang’, as many of them are in their sixties and seventies.
If found guilty, those convicted of the most serious charges could face ten years to life imprisonment.
Two men, the gang’s supposed ringleader Aït ‘Omar’ Khedache, 70, and Yunice Abbas, 71, have both already partially confessed to their involvement in the robbery.
Reporter Fagge described the defendants as ‘pretty old’ and frail, having seen the men for the first time in the beautiful Voltaire room on an island at the center of France’s capital.
He said: ‘They’re so old that they have become known in France as the grandpa robbers. Yunice Abbas is short, squat, and bald: he has the look of a bad-tempered bull terrier.
‘Omar Khedache, stood up to be formally identified in court. He’s frail with grey hair and a beard. He struggled to follow the proceedings because he has poor hearing and failing eyesight.
‘He can only reply to questions with written answers – when the judge asked him questions, all he did was confirm that he was retired.’
It has been suggested that despite pulling off the daring robbery of a global mega star, some of the suspects may not even know who Kim Kardashian is.
The trial is expected to run for a month, with Ms Kardashian expected to make a statement in person at some stage.
Our best-in-class crime reporters are set to share every courtroom revelation as it happens.
Listen to the full episode now: where Cheetham and Fagge share all the revelations about the gang from the trial’s first day.
Search for The Trial: The Kim Kardashian Heist, wherever you get your podcasts now. New episodes will be released every Monday and Thursday.
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