GUILTY Uk - Emile Cilliers Accused Of Tampering W/ Wife's Parachute, Wiltshire, 5 April 2015

[Legally Bland]

Today's Mail article looks like it's been updated.

Winchester Crown Court heard Mr Bayada was called by a colleague to come to the 'drop zone control room,' where a member of staff can overlook jumpers coming in to land at Netheravon.He said: 'I was told very little. The drop zone control was Justin Everitt and he indicated there had been a malfunction but his voice was gone, almost to the point of a bit of panic in his voice.

'He was not able to talk in full and tell me what happened, which is very unusual for him. I have known him a long time and never had that before.

'I knew straight away it was something out of the ordinary. He said something like 'there has been a malfunction, it is serious. Someone has been killed.''

The court heard Mr Bayada rushed out to where the parachutist had fallen with another colleague, who got to 40 year old Mrs Cilliers first and yelled 'she's not dead'.

Mr Bayada then drove back to the base to find doctors and medically-trained club members.

He added: 'She was still in situ. She was lying still when we went back to the scene. With the doctors there were enough people doing first aid that I did not feel I needed to get stuck in.

'Vicky was lying on her back and the reserve (parachute) was on the left hand side.'

The reserve parachute was only moved to shield Mrs Cilliers from debris as the air ambulance landed nearby.

Mr Bayaba said: 'While she was being treated I noticed the suspension lines on the reserve were in a tight ball.

'I noticed the reserve lines were knotted and bundled up in a fairly tight knot. The first time I saw that I knew it was strange as I had never seen that before.

'I was trying to work out what might have gone wrong because reserve parachutes just do not malfunction.

'It alarmed me when I saw the lines knotted that way.

'As Vicky was moved onto the stretcher or the stretcher was moved with Vicky on it, we had a look underneath to see nothing was getting caught and that is the first time I saw the reserve did not have anything attached to it.

'Two risers did not have attachments [slinks]. Both slinks on the same side, Vicky's right hand side, were not there.

'The effect of that is a catastrophic failure of the reserve.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-s-wife-brilliant-skydiver.html#ixzz4uePJ5ylN
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Lots more at link.

 

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Mr Bayada said he believed the main parachute had been sabotaged by wrapping the lines around each other within the parachute container.
He said: "I decided in my mind I found it highly unlikely that a normal packed parachute, correctly packed or even a normal user error, would result in a malfunction with that much entanglement because we normally see a twist in lines but never that continued entanglement where all the lines are massively entangled."

He said his only innocent theory for the missing slinks from the reserve was that they had been cut off by one of the first aiders or medics but on checking he found that no-one had cut anything apart from her goggles strap.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4620549/parachute-murder-case-emile-cilliers-victoria-cilliers/

 

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Mr Bayada said Mrs Cillier's main parachute was "distorted, rotated and bunched up".
He said the parachute's lines were "massively entangled".
It was "highly unlikely", he said, that user error "would result in a malfunction with that much entanglement".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-41515862

 

[Tortoise]

[FONT=&quot]The court heard there is a one in 793 risk of a main parachute failing, but there has never been a case of both *parachutes failing in many millions of jumps taken each year.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cilliers, a sergeant in the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, is also accused of attempting to kill Victoria and *endangering the lives of their two *children by damaging a gas valve at the home they shared just a week earlier.

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[FONT=&quot]Cilliers had earlier confided to Tinder lover Stefanie Goller that he had left his wife, the court heard.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Mr Bowes told jurors the accused lied to Stephanie about the reason – telling her his wife had got pregnant from an affair and the baby was not his.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But when Victoria gave birth in February 2015, his lover wanted to know how she could be certain the tot was another man’s and his marriage was truly over.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cilliers, of Amesbury, Wilts, replied: “I promise all will be water under the bridge very soon. I don’t want anything to jeopardise us. I am not going to lose you over this, you have no idea how much you mean to me.”

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The trial continues and is expected to last five weeks.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/soldier-who-sabotaged-wifes-parachute-11288287
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[Legally Bland]

The court has already heard that when Mrs Cilliers was unable to jump on the Easter Saturday due to bad weather, the defendant arranged to keep her hire parachute in her locker overnight.

Mr Bayada said he could not think why someone would do this, adding: "Everyone is expected to return it to the kit store. There is no financial benefit to keeping it out."

http://news.sky.com/story/attempted-murder-victim-was-top-parachutist-court-hears-11068165

 

[Tortoise]

The jury were shown two videos of two people tampering with parachutes.

In one video, it took two minutes and 25 seconds for the reserve parachute to be made 'lethal' by removing a slink and detaching another.

And it took a total of five minutes and 15 seconds to tamper with both the reserve and main parachute, with a line on the main pulled around the bag - which contains the parachute - before closing it up.

A second video showed a reserve and main parachute tampered with in four minutes and five seconds.

Commenting on the videos, Mr Bayada said: 'Both those in the videos are closed up looking like every other rig [which a skydiver carries on their back carrying both parachutes] does on the flight plan.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-s-wife-brilliant-skydiver.html#ixzz4uf9rcXUt

This is from the page you linked above LB.

I wonder if they have cctv showing how long he was in the toilets, or if it is witness evidence. Incredibly lucky for the prosecution that they know this detail at all. He didn't seem to be too clever disguising any of his moves.

Taking it in the toilet, placing it in the locker.. I'm expecting some tall tales, but probably not quite as tall as Ian Stewart's.

 

[Tortoise]

Nothing about the witness evidence today (yet), just a bit of jury trouble

The judge in the trial of an Army sergeant accused of attempting to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute has criticised a member of court staff for telling jurors “in France he would be guilty until proven innocent”.
The high-profile case against Emile Cilliers, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, at Winchester Crown Court was delayed for several hours while the High Court judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, and lawyers discussed the impact of the conversation held between jurors and the “new and untrained” member of court staff.
Mr Justice Sweeney told the jurors that one of them had produced a note describing the incident which happened within the jury’s private room on Thursday.

Read more at https://www.shropshirestar.com/news...ote-reveals-conversation/#8r6Om6bwsGMglhGz.99

 

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[FONT=&amp]Following the resumption of the trial, Mark Bayada, who has been chief instructor of the Army Parachute Association at Netheravon since 2013, continued giving evidence for a second day and told the court that during busy weekends, used parachutes could be left out overnight unpacked.[/FONT]

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[FONT=&amp]And he said it was "possible" that club members might keep their "un-jumped" parachutes out of the kit store overnight in order to be able to more efficiently jump the following day.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]
He previously told the court that he could not think of a reason why a piece of kit would be kept out of the store.[/FONT]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...gnore-comments-made-member-court-staff-trial/
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I read in the online blog of a trial watcher (I haven't linked it because I'm not sure about the rules on linking non-MSM reports) that EC took their daughter to the toilet with the parachute and a tool kit.

I'm not sure how old the daughter was in 2015. They were married in 2011 and so I'm presuming she was born after that and so was probably around 3 years old. If Vicky had died on that Easter Saturday their daughter would probably have been watching with her dad.

Everything about these crimes points to an unbelievable degree of callousness with regard to his whole family, not just his wife.

 

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In a statement by Mr Bayada read out in court, he said: "I would describe Emile as very quiet throughout, slightly bewildered and perhaps in shock.
"He seemed very matter of fact with what happened and very unemotional."


Miss Marsh QC, asked Mr Bayada: "If twists had been kicked out, one would expect to release the brake to control the canopy.
"Had that not been done but the twists kicked out, it suggests no effort to regain control."

Mr Bayada said: "In my mind, it is most likely that there is another problem stopping the releasing of the brakes.
"To me no effort means not bothering but for me, it [not using the brakes] suggests there is a reason they [the parachutist] did not take control but not that it was due to no effort."

He added: "It would suggest she could not kick out or solve the problem and, rather than waste time, she carried out a malfunction drill which we would expect."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/46453...n-told-her-chute-was-missing-vital-equipment/

Unbelievable! Defence trying to blame Victoria for making no effort. That makes me angry.

 

[Tortoise]

For some reason law pages is saying the case has been adjourned to 15:45. That seems rather late, unless they are perhaps getting in a witness by videolink from USA.

 

[Legally Bland]

For some reason law pages is saying the case has been adjourned to 15:45. That seems rather late, unless they are perhaps getting in a witness by videolink from USA.

Looks like a field trip.
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The jury in the trial of an Army sergeant accused of attempting to murder his wife by tampering with her parachute have visited the airfield where she survived her 'near fatal' fall.

[...]

The jury were first taken inside the hangar where the parachute kit used by Mrs Cilliers was hired on April 4 2015.

They were shown the kit store and mats where the parachutes are packed ready to be used during the jumps as well as a wall of photos depicting different types of parachute malfunctions.

The jurors were then taken to a set of toilets where the prosecution allege the defendant took the parachute to tamper with it before storing it in a locker overnight after poor weather prevented her jumping on the Saturday.

They were also shown a packed Safire 149 parachute, similar to that used by Mrs Cilliers and were given a chance to pick it up to feel its weight as well as take it into the toilets with them.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ets-man-tampered-parachute.html#ixzz4v79xyo35
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[Tortoise]

I wonder if Victoria Cilliers will be giving evidence. It was her locker and unless he had a key presumably he must have communicated something to her about storing the parachute there overnight, otherwise the defence could claim it was her decision.

 

[Tortoise]

The court has already heard that when Mrs Cilliers was unable to jump on the Easter Saturday due to bad weather, the defendant arranged to keep her hire parachute in her locker overnight.

http://news.sky.com/story/attempted-murder-victim-was-top-parachutist-court-hears-11068165

BBM That's the bit they need to prove.

 

[Tortoise]

When asked if he felt the sabotage could have taken place within a toilet cubicle with the parachute hung on the coat hook on the rear of the door, airfield boss Mark Bayada replied: 'I do not think so.'

Mr Bayada, the Army Parachute Association's (APA) chief instructor at Netheravon airfield, said that he did not know how knots occurred in Mrs Cilliers' reserve parachute lines but added they could have happened as a result of the slinks being removed.

'To have the knots created deliberately above the sliders when the parachute is packed, that would need you to open the reserve container, undo the lines, pull them through the slider and restart it.

'You wouldn't need to unfold the material but you would need to deploy all the lines; quite a lengthy process.'
He added: 'One, the hook is very weak, it's a soft metal hook, I'm not sure if it would take the weight of the equipment, the other one is the weight of the kit itself, it's very difficult to work on a set of kit.'



Alan Westley, who has been the chief rigger for the APA since September 2013, told the court that reserve parachutes are required to be checked and re-packed every six months and he kept a spreadsheet to organise when each parachute was due to be checked.

Mr Westley, who joined the Army Air Corps in 1998, said that of the 500 reserve parachutes he had checked before May 2015 which had slinks, he had never found one with a missing slink or with a slink undone or not properly done up.

Mr Westley said that Cilliers had completed a four-day reserve packing course and he had previously supervised the defendant packing his wife's own personal reserve parachute.

The court heard that the Safire 149 parachute used by Mrs Cilliers was last used on March 25 2015


The reserve, which was bought as a new rig in July 2007, was last inspected by Mr Westley on February 4 2015.
He confirmed that he checked all four risers of the reserve parachute for slinks on that inspection and said that all of the slinks were in a 'fully serviceable' condition.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...no-room-sabotage-parachute.html#ixzz4vDjV0qXd

 

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Mr Westley said: 'We all went out at the end of the day to find the slinks. We did not find them.

'We all looked in the north field, which is the area between where the drop happened and where Vicky landed.'

Mr Westley was in the plane with Mrs Cilliers before her jump on April 5, 2015, but would have been the first to jump out of the plane as his parachute is smaller and faster.

He said: 'I do not recall her being nervous before the jump.

'When I heard the emergency Tannoy [which sounded after Mrs Cilliers was seen spinning to the ground] I was inside the hangar.'


The court heard Mr Westley got into a car and drove to where Mrs Cilliers had fallen.

When he arrived Mrs Cilliers was being cared for by others who were medically trained.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...thout-luck-parachute-parts.html#ixzz4vJGiVszs


Not much news for a whole court day!

 

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According to lawpages there were six witnesses giving evidence today.

Mr Westley, who was witness no. 2, finished giving evidence before lunch.

Then they had;

Witness no.3 40 mins
Witness no.4 14 mins
Witness no.5 21 mins
Witness no.6 10 mins
Witness no.7 15 mins

Court sat until 7 minutes past 5pm.

So much for the reporting. Probably not juicy enough.

 

[Tortoise]

Three more witnesses today, no.s 8, 9 and 10.

The news is reporting on two of them.

[FONT=&amp]William "Rusty" Vest, customer service manager for Performance Designs (PD) Incorporated in Florida, USA, the company which produces the slinks used by the APA said thorough testing was carried out on the product and "the slinks never failed".[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]
He said via video link: "We have a thorough quality control process in place. They have a very high breaking strength."[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]
He added that if a slink had broken it would cause friction burns to the lines of the parachute.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]
He said: "From my experience and research, I would say if a PD slink had broken during a parachute deployment, then all tests and history state there would be associated line and riser damage as well."[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]
He said he had seen photographs of Mrs Cilliers' reserve parachute, which had never been deployed before, and he had not seen any damage.

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Shahad Khawaja, who last packed the main parachute used by Mrs Cilliers on her near-fatal fall, told the court by video link from Abu Dhabi, UAE, that twists in a parachute line could be caused by a packing error, a problem with jumping or high winds.

[..]

She said that she did not believe she would have made a packing error to cause a twist as she ensured it would be neat before packing and use a technique to avoid twists.

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/n...ute_parts_have___39_never_failed_before__39_/
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Third witness yesterday;

[FONT=&amp]George Panogopoulos, a chief rigger at the APA, said Cilliers was a qualified and "experienced" packer of main parachutes and added: "He is a very good, confident packer of main canopies. He became good and pretty quick and efficient."[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]He said the defendant had attended an advanced reserve packing course in October 2012.[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]The trial was adjourned until Monday.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/parachute-sabotage-trial-told-missing-11337980
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Looking ahead to sentencing, I'm thinking 30 years minimum, with expectation of financial gain.

https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.u...der_-_Definitive_Guideline_webaccessible1.pdf