Army sergeant swapped 250 messages with his mistress at wife’s bedside
‘I do care about her very much’
The army sergeant accused of trying to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute exchanged 250 text messages with his lover while he sat by his spouse’s bedside in intensive care, a court heard yesterday.
Sergeant emile Cilliers, 37, who had two extra-marital affairs, had also previously messaged his lover while his pregnant wife, Victoria, was having contractions, the court was told.
Cilliers, who had debts in excess of £20,000 when he allegedly twice attempted to kill his wife, yesterday admitted that he believed he would receive a £120,000 life insurance payout upon her death.
Scottish- born skydiving instructor Mrs Cilliers, 42, miraculously survived a horrific plunge despite her parachute failing to open correctly during a 4,000ft jump on April 5, 2015.
her husband is accused of trying to kill her by removing vital ‘slinks’ from her parachute before the skydive at Netheravon Airfield, in Wiltshire, just days after attempting to blow her up by causing a gas leak in their home in Amesbury.
While Mrs Cilliers lay in hospital with a fractured spine, broken ribs and a broken pelvis, Cilliers texted lover Stefanie Goller: ‘I can’t imagine anything like that happening to you, all I can think about is you.’ Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC said: ‘All this when your wife is lying in hospital virtually dead. how can you say this? You do not care about Victoria at all, do you?’
Cilliers replied: ‘I do care about her very much ... I was at the hospital with her.’
South African Cilliers, a father of six children from various relationships, had lied to Miss Goller by saying he and his wife were separated, and that she had become pregnant after cheat- ing on him. The pair joked in their messages about the fictitious father of her child.
‘even while your wife is lying in intensive care you are telling Stefanie your wife cheated on you and had a baby with another man – that really shows your character, doesn’t it?’ Mr Bowes told Winchester Crown Court.
The court heard Cilliers wanted to start a new life with Miss Goller, whom he met through the dating app Tinder while on a skiing trip away from his wife.
Cilliers, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, was also having a sexual relationship with his ex-wife Carly, 38, the court heard.
When quizzed about the first alleged attempt to kill his wife by damaging a gas valve which was found smeared with his blood, the sergeant said he ‘would have had the opportunity’ to tamper with it.
Mr Bowes said: ‘The blood found on the fitting has an easy explanation – you took a tool and gave it a jolly good wrench which did leave marks found on it, and also cut your hand.’ Cilliers replied: ‘That’s your assumption.’
Mrs Cilliers, an Army officer who outranked her husband, had texted Cilliers saying she could ‘make or break’ his career, which Cilliers admitted had ‘worried’ him.
Cilliers denies attempting to murder his wife by damaging the gas valve and tampering with her hire kit in the airfield’s toilet. The trial continues.