Wife Refuses To Believe Army Sergeant Husband Tried To Kill Her

Victoria Cilliers refuses to believe her husband, Emile, tried to kill her.

A mother who cheated death when her Army sergeant husband tampered with her parachute refuses to believe he tried to kill her.

Victoria Cilliers told the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror that she does not believe her husband, Emile Cilliers, is guilty of attempted murder. 

"He was my husband. Yes, things might have been breaking down.

"He'd been unfaithful, he'd had issues with money, but that is not attempted murder."

She said she dreads the day that their son discovers Cilliers lied to his mistress and said he was not his biological father.

"I can live with his lies, it's the betrayal of my children which is the hardest to bear."

Mrs Cilliers said she has told her two young children that their father "has done a bad thing", but not that he tried to kill her twice. 

She added her children "need a happy, well-adjusted life" and "I want boring and normal for us now, for them to grow up untainted.

"One of the hardest things to deal with has been our daughter's questions and her hurt.

"She still asks regularly: 'Where's Daddy? When am I going to see him? Why can't I speak to him on FaceTime?'"

Cilliers, 38, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, was found guilty of two attempted murder charges and a third count of damaging the gas fitting recklessly endangering life, following a retrial at Winchester Crown Court.

The trial heard Cilliers, who had "out of control" debts racked up by taking his lover on expensive holidays, first attempted to kill his wife by tampering with a gas valve at their home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, at the end of March 2015.

Their young daughter and son were both in the house with their mother at the time.

Cilliers, who was also in contact with prostitutes and having sex with one of his ex-wives, made a second attempt on Mrs Cilliers' life by sabotaging both her main and reserve parachutes, causing her to fall 4,000ft to the ground, which she "miraculously survived".

Mrs Cilliers, a highly experienced parachuting instructor, suffered near-fatal injuries in the failed jump at the Army Parachute Association at Netheravon, Wiltshire, on Easter Sunday, April 5 2015.

Cilliers is now awaiting sentence for two charges of attempted murder and a third of recklessly endangering life.

He has been remanded in custody until sentencing on 15 June.