London

UK Soldier Gets 18 Years for Tampering With Wife's Parachute

Prosecutors said the 38-year-old defendant was deeply in debt and wanted his wife's life insurance money to pay off his bills and start a new life with his lover

UK soldier gets 18 years for tampering with wife's parachute
LONDON (AP) — A former British Army sergeant who tried to kill his wife by sabotaging her parachute so he could get her insurance money was sentenced Friday to at least 18 years in prison.
Sgt. Emile Cilliers was convicted last month of two counts of attempted murder for the parachute tampering and sabotaging a gas valve at the couple's home.
Victoria Cilliers, 42 — an experienced parachuting instructor — suffered near-fatal injuries when she fell 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) in April 2015, but survived by landing on a newly plowed field.
Prosecutors said the 38-year-old defendant was deeply in debt and wanted his wife's life insurance money to pay off his bills and start a new life with his lover.
Cilliers, who has been dismissed from the army, was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court in southern England to life with no chance of parole for 18 years. Judge Nigel Sweeney told him "this was wicked offending of extreme gravity."
"You have shown yourself to be a person of quite exceptional callousness who will stop at nothing to satisfy his own desires, material or otherwise," the judge said.
Outside court, the investigating officer, Detective Inspector Paul Franklin, said Cilliers was "a cold, callous, selfish man who cares only about money and his sexual conquests. Today's sentencing means that society is a little safer with him locked away."

A former British Army sergeant who tried to kill his wife by sabotaging her parachute so he could get her insurance money was sentenced Friday to at least 18 years in prison.

Sgt. Emile Cilliers was convicted last month of two counts of attempted murder for the parachute tampering and sabotaging a gas valve at the couple's home.

Victoria Cilliers, 42 — an experienced parachuting instructor — suffered near-fatal injuries when she fell 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) in April 2015, but survived by landing on a newly plowed field.

Prosecutors said the 38-year-old defendant was deeply in debt and wanted his wife's life insurance money to pay off his bills and start a new life with his lover.

Cilliers, who has been dismissed from the army, was sentenced at Winchester Crown Court in southern England to life with no chance of parole for 18 years. Judge Nigel Sweeney told him "this was wicked offending of extreme gravity."

"You have shown yourself to be a person of quite exceptional callousness who will stop at nothing to satisfy his own desires, material or otherwise," the judge said.

Outside court, the investigating officer, Detective Inspector Paul Franklin, said Cilliers was "a cold, callous, selfish man who cares only about money and his sexual conquests. Today's sentencing means that society is a little safer with him locked away."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us