Parachute retrial: Soldier Emile Cilliers 'cared nothing' for wife he 'tried to murder'

A soldier thought he would get an insurance payout for his wife's death when he allegedly tampered with her parachute, a court has heard.

Emile Cilliers, 38, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, faces two charges of attempted murder and a third of damaging a gas fitting to recklessly endanger her life.

Winchester Crown Court has been told that he allegedly sabotaged his wife Victoria's main and reserve parachutes before a jump at the Army Parachute Association at Netheravon, Wiltshire, on 5 April, 2015.

Mrs Cilliers, an experienced parachutist and parachute instructor, suffered serious injuries after jumping out of a plane at 4000ft with the defective parachute.

Her husband is also accused of tampering with a gas valve at the family's home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, a few days earlier, while he was staying elsewhere.

Cilliers denies the charges.

Michael Bowes QC, prosecuting, told the court that Cilliers had been having an affair with a woman called Stefanie Goller, as well as a "sexual relationship" with his ex-wife Carly Cilliers and "contact with a number of prostitutes".

He had also been £22,000 in debt and thought the accidental death of his wife would get him a £120,000 insurance payout, Mr Bowes added.

The fall experienced by Mrs Cilliers was so severe that those who rushed to her aid "expected to find her dead", the court heard.

"Those at the scene immediately realised something was wrong with her reserve parachute, two vital pieces of equipment which fix the parachute to the parachutist's harness were missing and their absence meant her reserve parachute would inevitably fail and the parachutist would just spin to the ground," Mr Bowes said.

"(Cilliers) wanted to be rid of her and wanted to live his life on his own terms. He cared nothing for her and in truth cared only for himself.

"He had decided to get rid of her permanently."

Cilliers is on trial for a second time at Winchester Crown Court, after the jury in his first trial failed to reach a verdict.

Mr Justice Sweeney told the nine men and three women in the second jury that the failure of their predecessors to reach verdicts was "wholly irrelevant to your decisions".

The trial continues.