The wife of an Army sergeant accused of trying to murder her by tampering with her parachute has said she was ‘not suicidal’ on the day of the jump.
Victoria Cilliers said she was ‘very emotional’ when she went to complete what she previously described as a test jump to see if she would return to skydiving regularly after becoming a mother.
But she told the jury trying her husband Emile Cilliers at Winchester Crown Court that, although she had made comments ‘threatening suicide’ in the past, she was not attempting to take her own life when she jumped out of the plane on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015.
The 42-year-old, a free fall instructor who had carried out around 2,600 jumps, survived spiralling to earth at high speed after she cut away her main parachute and her reserve chute failed during the jump at the Army Parachute Association in Netheravon, Wiltshire.
Cilliers, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, is accused of tampering with her hire kit, allegedly twisting the lines of the main parachute and removing some slinks from the reserve.
On Tuesday, Mrs Cilliers was asked about previous comments she had made about ‘threatening suicide’ as she battled a form of depression and suspicions of her husband’s infidelity.
Asking about her emotions on the day of the jump, Elizabeth Marsh QC, defending, said: ‘How were you feeling on this day?’
Mrs Cilliers replied: ‘Very emotional, upset. Not suicidal.’
Ms Marsh then asked: ‘Did you do anything either accidentally or intentionally to manipulate your parachute?’
‘No,’ the physiotherapist answered.
Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC said it was ‘common ground’ that slinks had been removed from the parachute and she was asked by defence counsel if she had been responsible.
Former Army captain Mrs Cilliers said: ‘Yes, I have been asked, no I did not try to kill myself.’
Asked if that was her answer under oath, she replied: ‘I was not trying to kill myself that afternoon.’
Mr Bowes also questioned her over evidence in cross-examination where she suggested she could not remember if she used a tool on the gas lever as she investigated a suspected gas leak at their home the week on March 30, 2015.
Mrs Cilliers, when asked earlier by Ms Marsh about whether she used to tools, told the jury: ‘I tried to see if it was something I could fix.
‘I cannot remember. I could have done.’
The court previously heard a gas engineer called to the property that day found a loose nut on a gas isolation valve in a cupboard next to the oven.
Dried blood was also found on the pipe which the jury has heard was a match for the defendant, who said he used a pair of mole-grip adjustable locking pliers to try and tighten the nut before the engineer arrived.
Later, Mr Bowes questioned Mrs Cilliers over her comments, saying: ‘Are you just trying to help him (the defendant) on this point because you think it helps him?’
The witness replied: ‘No I cannot remember.’
‘You did not use the pliers on anything did you?’ the prosecutor asked, to which the witness replied: ‘I don’t remember.’
Mr Bowes said: ‘I’m going to suggest you certainly did not.’
Mrs Cilliers said: ‘You can suggest what you like.’
When Mr Bowes suggested she was unlikely to have done so because she had admitted to the jury she was not good at DIY, she said: ‘It’s not DIY… I could not see anything I could influence so I just left it.’
Mr Bowes said: ‘Did you wrench that nut, leaving marks on it?’
‘No,’ Mrs Cilliers responded.
Earlier the court heard that financial agreements, including a non-legally binding post-nuptial agreement and the defendant’s family life insurance policy, would only have benefitted Cilliers if his wife was alive.
Mrs Cilliers had cut her husband out of her will but said it was because she believed the defendant would received money from the life insurance if she died.
Ms Marsh asked: ‘Does it come to this, putting the insurance money aside, Emile would have been better off with you alive than you dead, wouldn’t he?’
‘Yes,’ the witness replied.
Cilliers, 37, denies two counts of attempted murder and a third charge of damaging a gas valve recklessly endangering life.
The trial continues on Wednesday at 10am.
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