A Paris criminal court began hearing the case this week over the ordeal suffered by the Manchester City goalkeeper and Alessia Elefante, whom he has since married and had a child with. The attack took place on Avenue Montaigne, one of the French capital's most exclusive streets, while the couple were asleep in their flat.
Donnarumma, now 27, was playing for Paris Saint-Germain at the time and is not expected to give evidence in person, though a witness statement from him has shed further light on what happened that night.
According to court documents, he was woken by a man telling him to be quiet before being struck in the face with a knuckle duster and threatened with a knife. When the intruder demanded "the watches, the watches," Donnarumma said he pointed to one on the dressing table: an Audemars Piguet worth potentially hundreds of thousands of euros.
Elefante told investigators she was also woken and attacked by the robbers, who shouted for money and watches before she handed over a Cartier watch, jewellery and €2,000 (£1,718) in cash. When she was unable to give them the code to a safe she said was empty, the group turned on her.
"They got angry thinking that I was lying," she said. "They pulled me by the hair and one of them hit me on the thighs. I said I was pregnant but they continued."
Donnarumma eventually gave up the code himself, though the safe was found to be empty as Elefante had warned.
The court heard the robbers escaped with keys to a Mercedes and a Lamborghini, along with cash, watches and luxury handbags, after gaining entry by climbing a ladder onto the roof and lowering themselves onto the balcony. Two men already in custody, 21-year-old Ilyas Kherbouch and Khyan Mamouni, are accused of masterminding the raid from their prison cells; both deny the charges. Kherbouch, who briefly escaped custody in March before being recaptured after 13 days on the run, caused a disturbance at the trial's opening when he insulted and threatened police officers after his brother was told to leave the courtroom.
A separate defendant, Moktar Diop, has admitted taking part but denies using violence, while a fourth suspect who had previously admitted involvement died by suicide in 2024, having told investigators he had come under pressure from his accomplices.
Two further defendants, both under 18 at the time of the robbery, have already been sentenced to three and four years respectively at a children's court. Lawyers for Donnarumma and Elefante have said the couple remain "profoundly shocked" by the ordeal. The trial continues.