Kim Kardashian arrives at court to 'confront' her alleged attackers in Paris robbery trial

Kim Kardashian has arrived at court to face a group accused of robbing her at gunpoint nearly a decade ago.

Wearing a black skirt suit, sunglasses, and with her hair pulled back into a chignon, the US reality star walked up the steps accompanied by her mother Kris and a large entourage. The US reality star greeted the judge with a soft "Hello," thanking the French authorities for "allowing me to tell my truth".

She began by telling the court of her love for Paris, calling it a "magical place," before becoming tearful when describing the robbery, and talking of her "confusion" when two men entered her room dressed as police officers, accompanied by the handcuffed concierge. She told the court: "I had fallen asleep naked with a robe on, I was flustered." Kardashian will face 10 defendants who it is alleged pulled off one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history in the early hours of 3 October 2016.

Ahead of her in-person appearance, Kardashian's lawyers said she was ready to "confront" the defendants and intended to do so "with dignity and courage". It's alleged that five masked men posing as police officers stormed the residence, with two entering Kardashian's room and robbing her at gunpoint.

Police say the men escaped on bicycles, with around $9m of jewellery, including a $4m engagement ring from Kardashian's then-husband Kanye West. Most of the jewellery was never recovered.

Earlier on Tuesday, in Paris's central criminal court, Kardashian's stylist Simone Harouche described the moment she was woken by the US star's screams of terror and feared she had been "raped or violated". Ms Harouche, 45, who says she has worked for Kardashian for many years and has been friends with her since she was 12, told the court she was woken by "a sound I had never heard from Kim… It was terror".

Sleeping in a separate apartment, on the next floor down from Kardashian's, she went on: "What I heard specifically was [Kim saying], 'I have babies and I need to live - that is what she kept saying… Take everything. I need to live'".

She told the judge: "When I realised something terrible was going on upstairs and I realised it was not friends [in Kim's room], I started looking for my telephone and I started looking for something to help save mine and Kim's life." She went on to lock herself in her bathroom and hide in her shower, where she called Kardashian's sister Kourtney and texted her security guard, Pascal Duvier, telling them, "Something is very wrong… Kim is upstairs with men and we need help." She says minutes later, Kardashian "hopped" into her room, explaining: "To see my friend with her feet taped and a very light robe with nothing under, and all messed up and pulled, I thought she could have been raped or very violated." She said she removed the tape from Kardashian's feet, and her friend was "beside herself.