A “VERY dangerous, coercive and manipulative” army sergeant has been convicted of trying to murder his Scottish wife by tampering with her parachute and sabotaging a gas valve at their home.
After a retrial, a jury found Emile Cilliers, 38, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, guilty of two attempted murder charges and a third of damaging the gas fitting.
Winchester Crown Court heard East Lothian-born Victoria Cilliers, a highly experienced parachuting instructor, suffered near-fatal injuries when both her main and reserve parachutes failed during a jump at the Army Parachute Association at Netheravon, Wiltshire, in 2015.
After the verdict, Detective Inspector Paul Franklin, of Wiltshire Police, said Cilliers – who will be sentenced later – was “cold and calculating” and a “very dangerous man”.
Describing the impact on Victoria Cilliers, Franklin said: “I don’t think we can underestimate the ordeal that she has been put through. She has been made to give evidence twice, on top of all the physical and emotional trauma that she suffered from that horrendous fall where it is a miracle really that she survived.”
Hannah Squire, junior counsel for the prosecution, said Cilliers used “coercive and manipulative behaviour” to satisfy his sexual and financial needs.
She added: “He showed complete and utter contempt for his wife and this culminated in his desire to have her dead whether that be to start a new life with his lover Stefanie Goller, benefit financially from the death of Victoria Cilliers, or both.”
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