Parachute trial hears defendant Emille Cilliers ‘owned pliers used to start gas leak’
Written by News on 24/10/2017
A man accused of attempting to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute, owned pliers used to start a gas leak by loosening a nut on a valve, a court has heard.
Sergeant Emile Cilliers, 37, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, denies two counts of attempted murder and one of recklessly endangering life by damaging the valve.
Victoria Cilliers, 40, suffered a fractured spine and pelvis, and broken ribs in a 4,000ft fall when her parachute failed on a jump at Netheravon Airfield on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire in April 2015.
Winchester Crown Court was told Mrs Cilliers, one of the top parachutists in the country, reported smelling gas at their family home in nearby Amesbury on 30 March 2015.
An engineer discovered a valve on a gas isolation unit in a cupboard next to the oven had been loosened.
Mr Cilliers had spent the previous night at his barracks because, he said, he wanted to beat the Monday morning traffic.
Forensic scientist Mark Kearsley told the court the markings found on the nut were a "conclusive" match for those on a pair of mole-grip adjustable locking pliers and indicated the tool had been used in a "loosening and not tightening motion".
Sergeant Cilliers has said he used them to try to tighten the nut before the engineer arrived but was unable to do so because it was too tight.
But Mr Kearsley told the court that was impossible.
"The nut must have been in a tightened position to lead to the impression we had, if the nut was loose it would just have turned with the tool," he said, adding that a "significant" degree of force would have been used.
Dried blood found on the pipe was a match for Cilliers, the court has heard.
Gas engineer Michael Osborne found a small leak on a nut in the cupboard next to the oven, fixing it by tightening the nut by a "quarter turn maximum".
He told the court such leaks are not unusual and could be caused by the nut being loosened by by repeated changes in temperature or by being knocked by tins of food being placed in the cupboard.
Gas safety consultant Howard Reed found the valve was not faulty when he inspected the property.
The trial continues.
(c) Sky News 2017: Parachute trial hears defendant Emille Cilliers ‘owned pliers used to start gas leak’
