Emile Cilliers trial: Army sergeant accused of attempted murder of wife by tampering with parachute 'went on advanced packing course'

A man accused of the attempted murder of his wife by damaging her parachute had acquired advanced skills at packing parachutes, a court has heard.

Victoria Cilliers, 40, sustained multiple injuries after she fell 4,000ft at Netheravon Airfield in Wiltshire in 2015 when her reserve parachute failed.

Emile Cilliers, 37, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps in Aldershot, denies the attempted murder of his wife, a former Army officer.

Cilliers, an army fitness instructor, is also accused of a third charge of damaging a gas valve at the couple's home a few days before her jump, as part of a second alleged murder attempt. He denies all the charges.

The prosecution alleges that Cilliers tampered with his wife's parachute the day before her jump with the Army Parachute Association (APA) by twisting the lines of the main parachute and removing two of the four links.

A chief rigger at the APA, George Panagopoulos, told the court that Cilliers, a qualified main parachute packer, went on an advanced reserve packing course in 2012.

Mr Panagopoulos said he acquired "100%" knowledge of assembling and packing reserve parachutes.

Also giving evidence at the trial at Winchester Crown Court, Justin "Kenny" Everett, a former member of the Royal Artillery parachute display team known as the Black Knights, said he was working as the drop zone controller at the time of Mrs Cilliers' fall.

He said when he spoke to Mrs Cilliers before the jump she had "seemed normal, didn't seem any different to normal".

But he said that as soon as she jumped he could see "straight away" the reserve parachute was not working properly.

"The reserve parachute was spiralling with only one side attached and the person underneath the parachute was being violently thrown around," he said.

He added that Mrs Cilliers was "very experienced, more experienced than myself in the qualifications she's got".

Fellow APA parachutist Brian Gardner said he saw Mrs Cilliers falling to the ground as the reserve parachute failed.

He said: "I landed normally and then I kind of heard a scream, I looked up, that's when I saw a parachute. It took me a while to see that it was a reserve that was malfunctioning.

"The parachutist started spiralling faster and faster, she started off going slowly and getting faster. She went down behind the hangars and trees."

The trial continues.