Army sergeant who sabotaged parachute 'not capable' of murder, says wife who survived 4,000ft fall
'Yes I’m hurt and angry, but can I see him as capable of murder? No'
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The wife of an army sergeant convicted of sabotaging her parachute in a bid to kill her has said she struggles to believe he is guilty.
Victoria Cilliers, who cheated death after plunging 4,000ft, has not yet told her two children that their father faces life in prison for her attempted murder.
Her husband, Emile Cilliers, 38, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted last week of twice trying to kill her so he could begin a new life with his lover.
But Ms Cilliers, 42, told the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror that she was not convinced of his guilt and would “always care” for the man who plotted her death.
“Yes I’m hurt and angry, but can I see him as capable of murder? No,” she said. “I am going to grieve for the marriage I had and the end of the life that I had.
“I have to go with, I suppose, the verdict. It’s too big to get my head around. It’s hard to comprehend that someone you get married to and have children with would be capable of that.
“My family, friends, everyone seems to think they know more than I do. They see different evidence to me.
“He was my husband. Yes, things might have been breaking down. He’d been unfaithful, he’d had issues with money, but that is not attempted murder.”
She added: “I'll always care for the father of my children, and I loved him, I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with him.”
Cilliers, who racked up “out of control” debts by taking his lover on expensive holidays, first attempted to kill his wife by tampering with a gas valve at their home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, at the end of March 2015. Their daughter, now six, and son, now three, were both in the house with their mother at the time.
Cilliers, who was also in contact with prostitutes and sleeping with his ex-wife, made a second attempt on her life by sabotaging both her main and reserve parachutes, causing her to plummet 4,000ft to the ground following a skydive.
Ms Cilliers, a highly experienced parachuting instructor, suffered near-fatal injuries but “miraculously survived” the jump at Army Parachute Association at Netheravon, Wiltshire, in April 2015.
She has since told her two children their father had “done a bad thing”, but she has spent the three years since his arrest telling them he is away for work.
She said they “need a happy, well adjusted life”, adding: “I want boring and normal for us now, for them to grow up untainted.
“One of the hardest things to deal with has been our daughter’s questions and her hurt. She still asks regularly. ‘Where’s Daddy? When am I going to see him? Why can’t I speak to him on FaceTime?”’
She added she dreads the day that her son discovers Cilliers lied to his mistress by insisting he was not his biological father.
“I can live with his lies, it’s the betrayal of my children which is the hardest to bear,” she said, adding she would like to confront her husband in prison and ask him: “What the hell? Why? Why is this all happening?”
Cilliers, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, was convicted of two charges of attempted murder and a third of recklessly endangering life following a retrial at Winchester Crown Court.
He was remanded in custody until sentencing on 15 June.