Didier Dubreucq, 69, lost battle with lung cancer on Thursday morning – after spending years denying he was the gunman who held reality star at gunpoint in 2016
The notorious jewel thief who terrorised Kim Kardashian in her Paris hotel room has died from cancer just one month after being convicted for the shocking heist.
Didier Dubreucq, 69, passed away on Thursday morning after losing his battle with lung cancer, French authorities have confirmed. The criminal, nicknamed ‘Blue Eyes’, was one of two masked men who burst into the reality star’s luxury suite and held her at gunpoint during the £8.5million robbery.
His death comes just weeks after he was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the audacious 2016 raid – though he never spent a day behind bars due to his failing health and time already served.
The gangster who always protested his innocence
Right to the bitter end, Dubreucq maintained he was an innocent man caught up in a case of mistaken identity. Despite being caught on CCTV and having numerous phone contacts with his fellow conspirators, the career criminal refused to admit his guilt.
He was so ill during the trial that he had to be hospitalised – and couldn’t even make it to court on May 23rd when the guilty verdict was delivered. But that didn’t stop him firing off a defiant letter to the judge hours later.
“I never participated in this jewelry theft,” he wrote. You don’t condemn a man on the altar of suspicion and doubt.
In an extraordinary twist, the dying thief even addressed Kim directly in his missive, acknowledging the trauma she’d suffered whilst still denying any involvement.
‘I hope she finds healing’ – robber’s final message to Kim
“The ordeal they endured deeply disturbed them, and I felt the trauma they are experiencing today in their voices,” Dubreucq wrote about Kim and hotel receptionist Abderrahmane Ouatiki, who was also held captive during the raid.
“It did not leave me indifferent. I dare to hope that in time they will find the path to healing.”
But prosecutors painted a very different picture. According to the investigation, Dubreucq was the second man to enter Kim’s hotel room on that terrifying October night in 2016, alongside ringleader Aomar Ait Khedache.
The night that changed Kim’s life forever
The reality star, then 35 and married to Kanye West, was alone in the penthouse of the exclusive Hôtel de Pourtalès during Paris Fashion Week. She’d let sister Kourtney take their shared bodyguard to a nightclub – a decision that would haunt her.
Wearing just a silk nightgown, Kim was dozing on the bed when she heard footsteps thundering up the stairs. Two men dressed as police officers burst in, dragging the hotel’s night watchman with them in handcuffs.
What followed was every woman’s worst nightmare. The robbers bound Kim with zip ties and tape “like a sausage”, as she later described it, before dumping her in the bathtub.
“I thought, ‘This is the moment. They are going to rape me,'” she tearfully told the court in May. “I fully mentally prepped myself.”
‘Don’t kill me, I have babies!’
As the gang ransacked her suite for 49 agonising minutes, Kim begged for her life. “I have babies, I have a husband, I have a family,” she pleaded with her captors.
The thieves made off with millions in jewellery, including her stunning 18.88 carat diamond engagement ring from Kanye. In their haste to escape on bicycles, one robber dropped a platinum cross adorned with diamonds – the only piece ever recovered.
Kim fled France by private jet hours later, visibly traumatised. The psychological scars ran deep – she later revealed her therapist diagnosed her as being “frozen in fight or flight” from the trauma.
The ‘Grandpa Gang’ who pulled off the heist of the century
The French press dubbed them the “Grandpa Robbers” – a gang of ageing criminals with rap sheets as long as your arm. Most were in their 60s and 70s, career villains who’d graduated from bank robberies to celebrity stick-ups.
It took French police just three months to round up the gang, thanks to DNA evidence left at the scene. But bureaucratic delays meant it was nearly nine years before they faced justice – with fears the high-profile trial would damage Paris’s reputation ahead of the 2024 Olympics.
Walking free despite guilty verdicts
In a twist that outraged many, none of the convicted robbers went to prison. Judge David De Pas ruled their advanced age and poor health “prohibited” incarceration.
It would have been unjust to take you to prison this evening,” he told the defendants. “You caused trauma, probably in a lasting way, but rebuilt your lives and taken steps to reintegrate.”
Dubreucq received seven years with five suspended – but was released immediately due to time already served during the investigation. His fellow conspirators received similar sentences, with ringleader Khedache getting eight years with five suspended.
A criminal to the very end
Even facing death, Dubreucq refused to come clean about his role in one of the most notorious celebrity robberies in history. His passing means Kim will never get the full truth about what really happened that night.
The Sun reports that French authorities confirmed his death from lung cancer on Thursday morning. He’d been battling the disease throughout the trial, requiring hospitalisation during proceedings.
For Kim, who told the court she was “satisfied” justice had been served after the verdicts, news of Dubreucq’s death may bring mixed emotions. Her lawyer said after the trial that she could finally “move on” – but with one of her attackers taking his secrets to the grave, true closure may remain elusive.
The heist that shocked the world
The Paris robbery remains one of the most audacious celebrity crimes ever committed. At the height of her fame, one of the world’s most photographed women was left bound and gagged in a bathtub while elderly French criminals made off with her most precious possessions.
The incident forced a major security overhaul for the Kardashian family and left Kim questioning whether flaunting her wealth on social media had made her a target. She dramatically scaled back her jewellery collection and beefed up her security detail.
As for Dubreucq, he leaves behind a legacy as one half of the duo who pulled off the “heist of the century” – even if he went to his grave denying it.
The other defendants in the case remain free, their prison sentences suspended due to age and infirmity. But for the man known as “Blue Eyes”, justice – or karma – has been served in the most final way possible.
