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Man charged with attempted murder after parachute failed Man charged with attempted murder after parachute failed
(about 2 hours later)
A man has been charged with attempted murder after a woman’s main parachute failed to open in a 4,000ft jump, police said. A man has been charged with attempted murder after his wife’s main parachute failed to open in a 4,000ft jump, police said on Tuesday.
Emile Cilliers, 36, is accused of two counts of attempted murder and a further charge of criminal damage reckless to the endangerment of life. Sgt Emile Cilliers, 36, an army fitness instructor, is accused of two counts of the attempted murder of his wife, Victoria, 40. He faces a further charge of criminal damage reckless to the endangerment of the lives of their two children.
The 40-year-old woman suffered multiple serious injuries after plummeting to the ground during a jump at Netheravon airfield on Salisbury Plain on 5 April. She was taken to Southampton hospital and later discharged. Victoria Cilliers suffered serious injuries including multiple broken bones after plummeting 4,000ft to the ground during a jump at Netheravon airfield on Salisbury Plain on 5 April, which was Easter Sunday, last year. She was taken to Southampton hospital and later discharged.
At the time Wiltshire police said the woman’s reserve also failed and deployed only partially. At the time Wiltshire police said Victoria Cillier’s main parachute failed and her reserve canopy deployed only partially, which slowed her descent, but she still spent three weeks in Southampton hospital.
Cilliers, of Amesbury in Wiltshire, has been released on bail and is due to appear at Salisbury magistrates court on 14 October. She had given birth five weeks before the accident, according to reports.
Emile Cilliers was questioned the following day and arrested on suspicion of attempted murder the following month.
He is also accused of tampering with a gas fitting at his wife’s home the week before the parachute accident, in what the Crown Prosecution Service said on Tuesday was another attempt to murder her. The CPS said he was reckless as to whether his two children would be endangered in this act, which took place between 28 and 31 March 2015.
Ian Harris, from the CPS Wessex, said: “The CPS has today authorised the police to charge Emile Cilliers with two charges of attempting to murder his wife, Victoria Cilliers, and with a further charge of criminal damage reckless to the endangerment of the lives of two children.”
Emile Cilliers, of Amesbury in Wiltshire, has been released on bail and is due to appear at Salisbury magistrates court on 14 October.