Husband cut wife's parachute after she asked him 'Are you trying to kill me?' court hears

Experienced skydiver Victoria Cilliers survived 4,000ft drop after avoiding tarmacked road

Army sergeant Emile Cilliers arrives at Winchester Crown Court, where he is on trial for attempted murder (PA)

An army sergeant who was having an affair attempted to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute before a skydive he organised as a “treat”, a jury has been told.

Emile Cilliers, 37, is accused of removing two vital components from the parachute rig, leaving Victoria Cilliers to plunge 4,000ft to the ground during her jump.

Ms Cilliers survived the fall but sustained multiple injuries at Netheravon Airfield in Wiltshire on 5 April 2015.

Mr Cilliers denies attempting to murder her.

Winchester Crown Court heard how Ms Cilliers sent a WhatsApp message to her husband jokingly asking whether he was “trying to kill her” several days before the skydive, after she found the gas valve in their kitchen was turned on and leaking.

Less than two weeks later, Mrs Cilliers jumped out of a plane on the skydive organised by her husband, only to find that first her main parachute and then her backup chute failed to deploy.

One of the UK’s top parachutists, and a veteran of more than 2,600 jumps, she used her skydiving skills to slow her descent to around 30mph and avoid a tarmacked road to land in a field.

She was airlifted to hospital and treated for a broken pelvis, ribs and vertebrae.

Mark Bayada, chief instructor of the Army Parachute Association at Netheravon, told jurors two components known as slinks were missing from Mrs Cillier's parachute and reserve chute.

He said it was “almost impossible” for the components to come off by accident and said it was highly unlikely the parachute’s tangled lines were the result of an error by Mrs Cilliers.

Mr Bayada said an “innocent” explanation for the missing slinks was that medics had cut them away.

Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC told the court Mr Cilliers was having an affair with both a woman he met on Tinder and his ex-wife.

Mr Bowes told the court Mr Cilliers had sent lover Stefanie Goller messages saying he was going to leave his wife and in one message wrote: “I will sacrifice and give up so much for you.”

The prosecution also claimed the defendant was £22,000 in debt and believed he would be set to receive a £120,000 insurance payout on his wife’s death.

Mr Cilliers denies two counts of attempted murder and is accused of a third charge of damaging a gas valve at the couple’s home.