My lies to police, by wife of sergeant accused of bid to kill her in skydive sabotage

Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC asked: “In your statement, were you telling the truth?” “I elaborated,” she replied. Mr Bowes said: “Were you telling the truth?” “No,” Mrs Cilliers responded. “So what you are telling the jury is that when you made that statement, you lied?” Mr Bowes continued.

She said: “I’m not saying I’m lying completely. I was angry when I made that statement and lied throughout to paint Emile in a bad picture.”

Cilliers, who now lives in barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire, was £22,000 in debt at the time of the drama.

He believed he would get a £120,000 insurance payout in the event of his wife’s accidental death, the court heard.

He was also having affairs with a woman called Stefanie Goller and his ex-wife Carly Cilliers and had arranged to meet several prostitutes.

Victoria Cilliers told police she thought her husband was having a “mid-life crisis”.

Speaking to officers about the terrifying parachute fall, she said she had been scared when she realised her main parachute was not opening properly.

She said: “I was the last person out [of the plane]. Straight away I knew something was not right.

“My main parachute had a lot of twists, it looked like one of the risers was wrapped around one side.

“I made the decision to do my reserve drills and cut away the main parachute. I released it.

“I cannot remember if I pulled the reserve parachute or if the back-up device activated.

“I could feel it pulling but straight away it was not right. I was spinning the opposite way to the way the twists were.

“It took a while to get those out but when I got [the twists out of the parachute lines] it made the situation worse.

“I remember trying to fight, to gain some control of it and then everything went black.”

Mrs Cilliers, whose first skydive was at age 16, had completed some 2,600 jumps before the near-fatal fall.

Cilliers denies two charges of attempted murder and a third count of damaging a gas fitting, recklessly endangering life.

The trial continues.

Pictures: MORTEN WATKINS/SOLENT Emile Cilliers with wife Victoria, who he is accused of trying to kill. Right, Cilliers at court yesterday. He was having an affair with Stefanie Goller, below left, when his wife’s parachute failed as she dived from plane like this, below