Wife of soldier accused of attempting to kill her with sabotaged parachute admits lying to police

'His lies and deceit had been disclosed to me and I just wanted to get my own back', Victoria Cilliers tells court

Victoria Cilliers leaving Winchester Crown Court after giving evidence in the trial of her husband Emile Cilliers (PA)

The wife of a soldier accused of sabotaging her parachute in one of two alleged attempts to murder her, has admitted she “did not always” tell police the truth about her husband’s actions.

Victoria Cilliers told Winchester Crown Court that she “despised” her husband, Emile, after becoming suspicious about his extra-marital affair, which had pushed her to suicidal thoughts.

She admitted that she had given differing accounts in her police interviews on the amount of time her husband was alone with her parachute.

Asked whether she had always told the truth, she replied: “Not always. The extent of his lies and deceit had been disclosed to me and I just wanted to get my own back to a certain extent.”

She said she had been generous with the “timescales”, adding: “I said he was away for a couple of minutes then the second time was five minutes which was probably an exaggeration. It was probably somewhere in between.”

Ms Cilliers suffered extensive injuries after falling 4,000 feet at Netheravon Airfield near Salisbury, surviving the drop because she landed in a field rather than a tarmacked road.

Sergeant Emile Cilliers, 37, is accused of tampering with her parachute the day before a jump at Easter in April 2015.

Prosecutors allege the NCO in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps took the chute into a lavatory at the airfield at Netheravon, Wiltshire, and twisted the lines of the main parachute before removing vital parts called “slinks” from the reserve.

Earlier in the trial, a video was shown which demonstrated how the parachute could be sabotaged in a toilet cubicle in just over five minutes.

Mr Cilliers is also accused of damaging a gas valve at the couple’s home a few days before the parachute jump.

Offering an explanation as to why she had given police differing accounts of the length of time her husband was alone with the parachute, Mrs Cilliers said the stress of being injured while caring for a newborn child was “horrific”.

“Cracks were starting to show, I was aware around that time, I had suspicions before that he was having an affair,” she said.

Ms Cilliers told the court she changed the terms of the will to leave the house to their children.

In a letter to her husband written at the time the will was changed, she wrote: “I do hope Emile you understand my reasons. I love you and you are an amazing father to the children, I just want to ensure that they have the access to education I had.”

She told the court: “I was trying to threaten him, if you do not take a grip, I was threatening suicide.”

When asked if she meant it, she replied: “I am not sure”, before adding: “I do not think anyone would understand.”

Mr Cilliers denies two counts of attempted murder and one of criminal damage recklessly endangering life.

The trial continues.