The conceirge has described the terrifying ordeal Kim Kardashian went through during the armed robbery. Photo / AP
The conceirge has described the terrifying ordeal Kim Kardashian went through during the armed robbery. Photo / AP
The hotel security guard at the centre of the £8.5million (NZ$14.5 million) Kardashian heist has told how he tried to comfort terrified Kim as she was bound and gagged in her room by jewel thieves.
The traumatised Algerian father-of-one, who asked to be identified only by his first name - Abdulrahman - because of fears for his safety, told MailOnline that he pleaded with the robbers not to harm Kim, but admitted that he let them in to her luxury Parisian apartment and even acted as the gang's interpreter.
In a world exclusive interview, he said: "I went up to the apartment with the robbers. I was tied up in the first minutes, with handcuffs. I was in the room of Kim Kardashian. One was attacking her, the second one was with me. I saw Kim being pulled out of bed."
The PhD student, who works part-time as a security guard to fund his studies, revealed how he desperately tried to throw the robbers off the scent by claiming not to know who Kim was, then was marched to her door "by the scruff of his neck" and forced to open it with a spare key from the front desk. He watched in horror as the star said she only had a small amount in cash to give them.
"I told him, I ask you, don't hurt her. I repeated it. He told me, don't worry, we are here for money. I repeated another time, please don't hurt her. He told me: Keep calm and all will be OK. Don't move or make a sound.
"One of the gang kept telling her to shut up. I put my hand on her shoulder and told her to be calm. I said, you have to be silent, you know. She sat down on the bed. She asked me, are we going to die? I said, I don't know, how can I know?"
"She said, I have family and babies. I told her, me too, I have one son. And she began to scream again. That's why he put the tape on her mouth. A long piece of tape, all the way round her head."
Security guards stand outside of the building where Kim Kardashian West and her husband Kanye West were staying in New York following the robbery. Photo / AP
Describing the moment robbers targeted Kim, Abdulrahman told MailOnline: "We got to her bedroom and slid open the door. She was in her bed. Before we opened the door, she heard a noise and began to say, hello? hello? I assume she thought it was her sister. The intonation of her voice changed when there was no answer, I felt she was worried. After that, one of them opened the door. The other one was fastened to me.
"He attacked her, holding his gun in her face. She was crying, she was screaming, saying, don't kill me, I have babies, don't kill me, please, I have babies! I'm a mom! Take whatever you want! She seemed terrified. She was wearing a white bathrobe and her hair was tied up."
Reality star Kim, 35, was bound, gagged and tied up on the floor of her bathroom in the luxury Hotel de Pourtales in Paris on October 3 while her bodyguard protected her sisters in a nearby nightclub. Thieves made off with gems worth £8.5million (NZ$14.5 million), including her £3.5m (NZ$5.9m) engagement ring.
The identity of the 'concierge' who was forced to lead the intruders to her room at gunpoint has so far been kept secret, and only brief details of the heist have emerged.
But today MailOnline can reveal the full, devastating account of how a gang of robbers attacked one of the world's biggest celebrities in her own bedroom, and how the 'concierge' was in fact a night security guard who had been left alone at the front desk.
In a hotel room in Paris, Abdulrahman is visibly nervous as he recalls the chilling moment he realised he was about to become the victim of a vicious robbery gang.
The ordeal began at 2:35am, he recalled, when three men dressed in police uniforms appeared at the glass doors within the hotel complex. "I was behind the desk. The glass door was closed but not locked, and they told me to open the door, making a motion behind the door," he said.
"I saw the police uniforms, the hats, also the jackets with reflective badges, like the police have. All perfect. So I came to open it and just when I opened it, they grabbed me and handcuffed me." Two of the gang were wearing balaclavas, he added, and the third had a high collar pulled up to his eyes.
"In the first seconds, I thought they were policemen making an arrest," he said. "I told them, I'm working here, what is wrong? After that he questioned me, where is the security video? At that time, I knew it was a robbery."
French police officers exit the residence of Kim Kardashian West in Paris. Photo / AP
Describing how the robbers forced him to the floor and handcuffed him, Abdulrahman said: "At first I looked at them and one got very angry. He told me to put my head down and never look at him again. He repeated, never, never look at me, or I will kill you. I saw that two of them had guns, so I just looked down.
"They were very violent, shaking me, making me lie down on the floor. In the first minute, I was on the floor, handcuffed with my hands in front. It was very scary."
Lying on the floor, it took Abdulrahman several minutes to convince the robbers that there were no other security cameras and no armed guards on duty. "Always he was asking me, you are not kidding me? If so, we'll kill you," he recalled. "I told them I had no choice, why would I lie?"
In an attempt to persuade the robbers to abandon the heist, Abdulrahman then told them that many guests were about to return to the apartment. This appeared to catch the gang off-guard, and they shoved him into a stairwell behind an emergency door while they discussed their next move.
After a few minutes, he said, one of the thieves pushed open the door and demanded to be told the location of "the wife of the rapper". Abdulrahman played for time as long as he could.
"I tried to confuse things, because my friend who also works in the night security is a rapper, I said, you mean the black guy? I gave his name. He told me no, I mean the wife of the rapper.
"I told him, the rapper is not here, trying to confuse things. But he insisted, is the wife here? The wife? Don't lie, or I will kill you.
"Then finally I admitted she was there in the hotel. I told him, I can't force you, because you have a gun, but I ask you, don't touch her. Don't harm her. He told me, no, we are just here for money. This made me confident they were not killers."
After being handcuffed, Abdulrahman was forced into the lift by two gang members while another remained in the reception area. They made their way to the apartment, where Abdulrahman was forced to open the door with the key - which they had taken from the key-rack behind the desk.
"All of the keys were labelled for anybody to read," Abdulrahman said. "They forced me to tell them the number of Kim's apartment, then they could just take the key and go up."
They marched up the stairs to Kim's bedroom, and they entered through a pair of sliding doors leading to a mezzanine floor. "We passed the room with Kim's friend in," he recalled. "I was praying, maybe she will call someone. But I think it was actually better that the police didn't arrive. Otherwise it would have been very bad."
Jennifer Lawrence had been staying at the 11-apartment property just days before the theft, while pop star Robin Thicke was renting another of the exclusive units but had gone out "several hours" before the robbery took place.
The thieves repeatedly said they were looking for money, Abdulrahman said, and asked for jewellery when they discovered that Kim had only a small amount of cash in her apartment.
The operation lasted at least half an hour, he said, as the gangsters held whispered discussions about what to do next. They did not seem to be aware of the value of the star's jewellery.
The thieves had also come unprepared for the fact that the American star didn't speak French and became "upset and angry" when they were unable to communicate, only calming down when Abdulrahman stepped in to help.
"She was so scared. She was crying and screaming, the men were shouting, and the fact that she couldn't understand made him worse and more upset.
"I told them to wait and I put myself in the middle, between the thieves and Kim. I said wait, she can't understand you. Then I played the interpreter of the scene.
"One of the gang kept telling her to shut up. I put my and on her shoulder and told her to be calm. I said, you have to be silent, you know. She sat down on the bed. She asked me, are we going to die? I said, I don't know, how can I know?
Kim with bodyguard Pascal Duvier, who was at a nightclub two miles away with two of her sisters during raid. Photo / Getty Images
She said, I have family and babies. I told her, me too, I have one son. And she began to scream again. That's why he put the tape on her mouth. A long piece of tape, all the way round her head.'
The men then bound the reality star's hands and feet with black tape before carrying her into the bathroom and dumping her on the floor, he claimed, not in the bath as has been reported.
The intruders only left the premises after Kim's bodyguard, Pascal Duvier, called on her Blackberry, and the gang told Abdulrahman to switch it off. "I saw his name on the screen and I told them, you know who is ringing now? It is her bodyguard. If she doesn't answer, he will come here with the police," Abdulrahman said. "They ran immediately."
They even left their rucksack open, allowing some of the haul to fall out as they later fled, he said.
"They took Kim's iPhone but left her Blackberry. They pushed me downstairs and when we got to the bottom, I saw all five guys and two bicycles in the reception area.
"Then I was scared, because it was the end of the story and maybe they were going to kill me. When the leader told one of them to tie my feet with zip ties, I began breathing hard, because I didn't know what they would do. At the last minute, I got scared.
"They tied me up behind the emergency door in the reception and left me there.
"I didn't get the feeling that they were some kind of wild people who have a lot of negative energy. Now I feel like I want to thank the robbers for not harming me or Kim."
As Abdulrahman lay, bound by hand and foot in the stairwell in reception, the thieves made their escape. Five minutes later, Kim's bodyguard, Pascal Duvier, entered and together with her driver, set Abdulrahman free.
Within minutes, police were on the scene. As they had not brought an interpreter, Abdulrahman - who was still handcuffed - once again acted translator so that Kim could give her statement.
"I saw Kim a lot then," he said. "When she left, she hugged me and I told her, the most important thing is that we are safe and we are alive.
"When you are with someone through such an experience, I think there is something linking you, there is some connection. I hope really she is feeling better, but I don't think she is. It was very, very scary. You can't imagine."
Kim, who by then had changed into black Adidas trousers and a black hooded top, left the country on a private plane while Abdulrahman went to the police station to continue helping with the investigation.
"I ended up having the handcuffs on until almost five in the morning because policemen did not have the ability to open them," he said. "It made me upset. The police were not very professional. They did not look after me afterwards, they didn't offer me any counselling or anything. Psychologically, I have to repair myself."
He added that the police had leaked confidential information he had given them during his witness statement to the press, potentially putting him in danger. "They told the press that I said the robbers were between 40 and 50 years old," he said. "That was very dangerous for me, as it shows I gave evidence to the police."
But when asked who he blamed for the heist, Abdul had only one answer. "Immediately afterwards, I was very angry, and the first one I blamed was the hotel.
"I told them years ago that we needed better security. And they didn't care. The code of the door was never changed and everybody knew what it was.
"I told them after the robbery, look what you did! What have I been telling you for six years? Security cameras are meant for days like today. If you had good guards and electronic systems to lock the doors, it would have been possible to secure the hotel."
On Sunday, MailOnline tried the same security code at the front door and found that it had still not been changed.
A spokesman for Hotel de Pourtales declined to comment on the record, as did police and Abdulrahman's security boss.
