A WOMAN whose husband was found guilty of attempting to murder her by tampering with her parachute has said she can’t accept he is a potential killer.
Victoria Cilliers said she felt “bullied and humiliated” in court in the process of prosecuting her husband, Emile Cilliers.
Last week, a jury of nine men and three women convicted 38-year-old Cilliers, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, of two attempted murder charges after he cut cords on his wife’s parachute and tampered with a gas valve at their home.
Mrs Cilliers, originally from Haddington, East Lothian, was a highly experienced parachuting instructor.
She had been taking part in a jump at the Army Parachute Association at Netheravon, Wiltshire, on April 5, 2015, when she plunged 4,000 feet and suffered near-fatal injuries when her main and reserve parachutes failed.
The court heard how her husband, with whom she has two young children, had been “cold and calculated” in tampering with her parachute, with police describing Cilliers as a “very dangerous man”.
However, in an interview following her husband’s conviction, the 40-year-old said she was finding it difficult to come to terms with his conviction.
“Yes, I’m hurt and angry,’ she said. “But can I see Emile as capable of murder? No.”
“It’s hard to comprehend that someone you are married to and have children with would be capable of that.
“My family, friends, everyone, seems to think they know more than I do,” she added. “They see different evidence to me. Because I’m sitting on the fence [the prosecution] felt the need to try to push me off.
“I felt bullied and humiliated in court, manipulated, like I was being used as a pawn by the prosecution.
“I have to go, I suppose, with the verdict. It’s almost like peer pressure to conform. It’s got me into a whole load of hot water because I haven’t conformed, I’ve stuck to what I believe.”
In an interview with a Sunday newspaper, she said it is “all the harder” when it is pointed out to her there is no plausible alternative. She said: “But 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.”
As part of the prosecution, the jury heard how Cilliers had “showed complete and utter contempt for his wife and this culminated in his desire to have her dead whether that be to start a new life with his lover, Stefanie Goller, benefit financially from the death of Victoria Cilliers, or both”.
Mrs Cilliers said she had not spoken to her husband since he was charged three years ago, but said: “I will always care for the father of my children.
“I want to be able to put this behind me. I don’t want it to consume our lives. It’s not going to do them any favours if I’m bitter and ranting.”
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