Wife’s parachute plunge lands SA-born man in the dock
A SOUTH African-born British Army sergeant has been charged with two counts of attempted murder after his wife’s parachute failed to open during a 1 200m jump.
Emile Cilliers, 36, is also to be tried on one count of criminal damage reckless to the endangerment of life.
Cilliers’ wife, Victoria, 40, was seriously injured when her parachute failed to open during the jump over Netheravon Airfield on Salisbury Plain in England on Easter Sunday last year.
Her reserve parachute opened only partially, Wiltshire Police have said. This slowed her descent to about 50km/h, but when she hit the ground she broke ribs, a collarbone and a leg, and injured her spine.
Police said she could have lost her life, but “miraculously” survived.
She spent three weeks in Southampton Hospital.
Her younger child had been born only five weeks earlier, The Guardian has reported.
The first count of attempted murder relates to this incident.
The second count relates to an incident that took place in Wiltshire between March 28 and 31 last year.
The third charge stems from an incident in which Cilliers is alleged to have damaged a domestic gas fitting, putting the lives of the couple’s children in danger.
Cilliers has been released on bail and is to appear in the Salisbury Magistrate’s Court on October 14.
The Daily Mail in London has reported that Cilliers was born in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, and is an instructor with the Royal Army Physical Training Corps.
He met Victoria after his first marriage – to an English- woman – had fallen apart in 2010.
In 2011, the couple travelled to South Africa to get married in a small ceremony near where Emile’s parents were living.
Their daughter was born a year later, in May 2012.
By August 2013, Emile had finished his military training.
The couple bought their home in Amesbury the following month. The home is registered in Victoria’s name and is mortgage-free.
The family’s life there appeared to be comfortable.
Emile juggled fatherhood with his outgoing lifestyle, uploading videos of army pranks and clips from war-zone video games to his YouTube channel.
At the end of March, Victoria gave birth to a baby boy.
It is understood, however, that Emile moved out shortly afterwards, taking their daughter and newborn son with him.
After the accident, the parachute club – Skydive Netheravon, home of the Army Parachute Association, of which Victoria and Emile are members – alerted police.
For both parachutes to fail was not only rare but suspicious, they said. Fingers began to be pointed. Sections of apparatus known as slinks – strips of material that connect the jumper’s harness to the canopy – were missing, so the parachute would not open fully.
Detectives from the Wiltshire Police have appealed for infor mation about the missing slinks. Members of the parachute club have been questioned.