Husband given life sentence

A “COLD, callous and selfish” South African working in the British army who cheated on his British wife and then tried to murder her for her £120 000 (R2.1 million) life insurance was jailed for life yesterday.

Emile Cilliers will serve a minimum of 18 years for trying to gas his wife Victoria at home before he tampered with her parachute sending her plummeting from 1 200m three days later in 2015.

Victoria Cilliers was at Winchester Crown Court to see him sentenced for two counts of attempted murder. She survived the fall but admitted she has no plans to divorce him.

Sentencing Cilliers, Justice Sweeney said: “This was wicked offending of extreme gravity.”

He added: “Your offending was extremely serious with your two attempts to murder your wife. They were planned and carried out in cold blood for your own selfish purposes which include financial gain.

“That your wife recovered at all was miraculous, she undoubtedly suffered severe physical harm and she must have suffered psychological harm in the terror of the fall and since.

“She appears to have recovered from the physical harm but not, having seen her in the witness box at length, from the psychological harm.”

Emile Cilliers first tried to gas his wife with their children in the house but the smell alerted her to the danger and she later jokingly texted him to say: “Are you trying to kill me?!” – Daily Mail

Victoria and Emile Cilliers