Emile Cilliers took to the witness box in his trial for attempting murdering his wife by damaging her parachute
An Army sergeant accused of trying to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute told his mother he ‘wanted out’ of the relationship, a court heard.
Emile Cilliers, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, sent the message after experiencing ‘difficulties’ with wife Victoria, jurors at Winchester Crown Court were told on Monday.
The 37-year-old defendant is charged with attempted murder after her main parachute failed to open correctly in a 4,000ft jump at Netheravon Airfield on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, on April 5 2015.
Before this, Cilliers had started an affair with Stephanie Goller and confided in his mother, the court heard.
Cilliers told the jury how he and his wife were having trouble and he contacted his mother.
Elizabeth Marsh QC, defending, said: ‘Forgive me for paraphrasing but your mother’s response was: ‘Pull yourself together and get on with your marriage?’
‘Yes,’ he replied.
Cilliers met Ms Goller on dating app Tinder at a time when he felt ‘far away from home’ and when he felt he needed ‘female company’, he told the court.
He described his wife as someone who was ‘very easily upset’ and had told him she was feeling very low and ‘wanted life to be over’.
Questioned by barrister Elizabeth Marsh QC, Mr Cilliers (pictured in a court sketch) said he told his mother he wanted out of his marriage
Ms Cilliers survived the fall after the parachute failed to open properly in a 4,000ft jump
Asked whether he took what she said seriously, he replied: ‘Not massively, no.’
Cilliers told the court Ms Goller had stayed with him at the Army barracks just days before the birth of his son with Victoria, but he lied about being the father.
He said: ‘I told her [Stephanie] I wasn’t the father of the child.’
When Ms Marsh asked why, there was a long pause before he said: ‘I don’t know. I think I got the impression from Stephanie that she would think there was still something going on between me and Victoria.’
Ms Marsh continued: ‘If you had a future with Stephanie how were you going to resolve that particular issue?’
He responded: ‘There was no way of doing it. Nonetheless I kept on lying about it.’
He later said: ‘The lie was cowardly and a big mistake.’
Cilliers is said to have been planning to start a life with Stefanie Goller at the time
The court heard he and Ms Goller had talked about starting a life together in Salisbury but he said, thinking back on this, it was never going to happen.
Jurors were told he had also discussed leaving the Army with Ms Goller, but in court he said: ‘I would never leave the Army… I always saw my future in the Army.’
Dressed in a blue suit with a white shirt and yellow tie, Cilliers said he did not object to signing a post-nuptial agreement which had been proposed by his wife.
He said he signed on the understanding she owned the house but he would be in line for a pay-out should the marriage fall apart and they divided their assets.
He said he did not feel the need for legal advice and he was content with the proposals.
Asked if he was at any point resistant, he said: ‘Not at all because it was her money after all.’
Cilliers is also accused of trying to kill his wife (pictured) in a gas leak at their home
Mrs Cilliers, 42, described as an accomplished skydiver with around 2,600 jumps to her name, plummeted to the ground at high speed when her main chute malfunctioned and the reserve failed.
Jurors were told her survival, albeit with serious injuries, was a ‘near miracle’, and was largely attributed to the soft soil in the ploughed field where she landed.
The court previously heard Cilliers would have been better off financially with his wife alive.
The defendant denies attempting to murder his wife by tampering with her hire kit in a toilet cubicle, allegedly twisting the lines of the main parachute and removing some slinks – nylon strips which fasten the parachute to the harness – from the reserve, meaning Mrs Cilliers was sent spinning to the ground.
The South African, who is father to six children from various relationships, also denies a second attempted murder charge relating to a gas leak at their family home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, a few days earlier, as well as a third charge of damaging a gas valve, recklessly endangering life.
The trial continues.
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