'Boobaholic' army sergeant obsessed with sex faces life in jail as he is found GUILTY after retrial of trying to murder his wife by sabotaging her parachute to pocket her £120,000 life insurance

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'Cold, calculating and callous' Emile Cilliers will be kicked out of the military 'within seven days' and could face life in jail for trying to kill his wife, twice

A sex mad and debt-ridden army sergeant was today convicted of twice trying to murder his wife to snaffle her £120,000 life insurance and start a new life with his Tinder lover.

Emile Cilliers, 38, showed no emotion as he was convicted of the attempted murder of Victoria Cilliers after a retrial at Winchester Crown Court 

'Cold, calculating and callous' Cilliers will be kicked out of the military 'within seven days' and could face life in jail.

He first tried to gas his wife with their children in the house but the smell alerted her to the danger and she later jokingly texted him to say: 'Are you trying to kill me?!'.

Three days later he suggested his wife, an experienced parachutist, go skydiving over Easter weekend 2015 and then sabotaged her kit on the eve of her 4,000ft jump at Netheravon Airfield, Wiltshire.

Cilliers tangled her main canopy and removed vital links from her reserve in a toilet cubicle after he told Mrs Cilliers one of their children needed the loo. 

The father-of-six, who the prosecution called a 'charmless unfaithful penniless scoundrel', was also sleeping with his ex-wife Carly, Mrs Cilliers and a Tinder lover named Stefanie Goller.

The soldier, described as a 'boobaholic' by his wife who knew he was part of a sex club, also contacted  prostitutes about meeting up on the proviso sex was unprotected and he could film the liaison - but cancelled after they tried to charge £60 instead of £50.

His first six-week trial collapsed last year when the jury couldn't reach a verdict after his wife became a 'hostile witness' and admitted she had lied to police about her husband to 'get her own back'.   

Emile Cilliers tried to kill his wife Victoria twice - first with a gas leak and then in a parachute jump - to get his hands on her money and start a new life

Emile Cilliers tried to kill his wife (pictured in happier times) while he was sleeping with at least two other women 

Emile Cilliers looked to the world like a straight-laced Army sgt but in fact was sex obsessed and saddled with huge debt

Physiotherapist and former Army Captain Victoria Cilliers, who had 2,600 jumps to her name, leapt from the plane at Netheravon Airfield, Wilts, both parachutes failed and she plummeted helplessly to the ground.

Miraculously, Mrs Cilliers, then 40, survived the terrifying fall on April 5, 2015, suffering a broken pelvis, ribs and spinal injuries. 

He will be sentenced on June 15, Mr Justice Sweeney revealed.

He said: 'Dangerousness is such a big part of this case, it seems to me I ought to get a view on this.

'Therefore I will adjourn sentencing for three weeks and formally order a report concentrated on the issue of dangerousness'.

Army sergeant Emile Cilliers showed 'coercive and manipulative behaviour to satisfy his financial and sexual desires', according to the prosecutors who presented the case against him to the jury. 

Hannah Squire, advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that the 38-year-old was the 'man with the motive and the opportunity to commit these cold and calculated attempts to murder his wife'.

Speaking on the steps outside Winchester Crown Court following the guilty verdicts returned by the jury, she said: 'He 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'.  

In an extraordinary case spanning a collapsed trial and a re-trial it emerged:  

• Sex mad Emile Cilliers had been sleeping with two women and his wife up until her parachute crash;
• After the gas leak his wife Victoria had texted her husband and joked: 'Are you trying to kill me?'   
• Cilliers suggested his wife go skydiving on Easter Weekend and sabotaged her kit in a second attempt to murder her; 
• Father-of-six wanted to cash in his wife Victoria's life insurance to pay off his debts;
• At time of 2015 attacks he was sleeping with his first wife, a woman he met on Tinder and was also trying to organise 'bareback' sex with prostitutes;
• Mrs Cilliers gave contradictory evidence and became a 'hostile witness' to the prosecution and even had to be warned not to meet him six months after he tried to kill him;

The judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, thanked the jury of nine men and three women for carrying out their duty with 'distinction'.

He said he would be seeking a report from the probation service to establish the 'dangerousness' of the defendant and to seek a statement from Mrs Cilliers on the impact the offences had upon her before sentencing Cilliers on a date to be set.  

He said: 'The burden now falls on me on what to do as far as this defendant is concerned, that too is a heavy burden.'

He continued: 'It's an important part of any sentencing exercise where there is a victim or intended victim as there plainly is in this case, that the court gives the victim an opportunity to make a statement and despite all the ups and downs that is what I am going to afford Mrs Cilliers if she wishes to take it.' 

Mrs Cilliers used her skills as an outstanding skydiver to save herself as she plummeted to earth from 4,000ft in 2015. She would later give contradictory evidence against her husband

His first attempt to kill his wife was by tampering with a gas pipe in their kitchen but she was alerted by the smell

After that failed he tampered with his wife's parachute in a toilet cubicle having pretended to take their child to the loo

DI Paul Franklin described Cilliers as a 'very dangerous man' barrister Hannah Squire, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, said he had tried to kill his wife for sexual and financial reasons

It was revealed Cilliers, who lived with his wife in Amesbury, Wilts, had been having an affair with Austrian Stefanie Goller after he met her on dating app Tinder.

The 'sexually-active' sergeant, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, was also meeting his ex-wife Carly for sex behind his current wife's back and was in contact with a number of prostitutes.

His wife, 42, told a court she even found out he was part of a 'sex club' when she discovered messages on his computer.

South African-born Cilliers, who moved to the UK in 2000, said he got a 'thrill' and a 'kick' out of contacting hookers, going as far as arranging to film himself having unprotected sex with one.

His retrial at Winchester Crown Court, Hants, was thrown into chaos when Mrs Cilliers told a jury she 'expanded the truth' during police interviews to paint her husband in a 'worse picture'.

The father-of-six, who the prosecution called a 'charmless unfaithful penniless scoundrel', was also sleeping with his ex-wife Carly, Mrs Cilliers and Tinder lover Stefanie Goller (pictured)

Prosecutors, who must ask open questions under court rules, were forced to apply to a judge to have her declared a 'hostile witness'.

Judge Mr Justice Nigel Sweeney granted the application, allowing closed questions to be asked in an attempt to stop her from providing a different version of events in court.

Today at Winchester Crown Court, jurors convicted him of two counts of manslaughter and one count of causing damage reckless as to the endangerment of life. 

Opening the seven week trial, prosecutor Michael Bowes QC told the court Cilliers racked up £22,000 worth of debts before he tried to kill his wife and claim her life insurance.

Carly Cilliers met her husband in a pub and would later rekindle their relationship around a decade after their divorce

Mr Bowes QC said: 'On April 5, 2015, Victoria Cilliers, a highly experienced parachutist and parachute instructor, was involved in a near fatal parachuting fall.

'When she jumped out of the plane at 4,000ft, both the main and reserve parachute failed, causing her to spiral to the ground.

'Those attending the scene expected to find her dead, but, although badly injured, she survived the fall.

'The circumstances were such that the police began a criminal investigation into the possibility the defendant, Emile Cilliers, had attempted to murder Victoria.

'Subsequently the police investigation widened to incorporate circumstances surrounding a gas fitting at their marital home in Amesbury, Wilts.

'The prosecution case it that Emile Cilliers had deliberately caused a gas leak just before he left the house to stay elsewhere.

'The defendant was having an extra marital relationship with Stefanie Goller.

'He was having a sexual relationship with his ex-wife Carly Cilliers and he was also making contact with a number of prostitutes.

'Now, there is nothing wrong with going to prostitutes, but it is indicative of a man who just does what he wants, when he wants.

'Emile Cilliers had his own insurance policy which covered Victoria as well in the event of accidental death.

'The defendant believed he would receive the £120,000 in the event of her death. He had debts of around £22,000 at the time.

'On any showing, the defendant cares nothing for Victoria at all.

'We have his relationship with Victoria, he is telling Stefanie he loves her, and he has sex arranged with Carly and then unprotected sex arranged with a prostitute.

'We say here's a man who cared not for Victoria, he treated her with contempt - he did not care about her in any way at all.'

Army sergeant Cilliers is seen marrying his wife Victoria in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2011, where he even went down on his knee to say his vows but soon afterwards he was cheating on her with two different women

It was also heard that Cilliers attended a meeting the day after his wife's horrifying skydive fall, where he did not ask a single question about what had happened to her and why.

Chief Instructor of Netheravon Airfield Mark Bayada told the court: 'I was expecting questions, particularly from Emile. He had little reaction, he was looking at the ground with hardly any response at all, he didn't ask me any questions.'

The court heard Cilliers, who was experienced at packing parachutes, took his wife's chute into a toilet at the airfield and tampered with it the day before her jump.

Mrs Cilliers, recalling the horrific fall, said: 'I jumped out the aircraft and pulled my parachute and there were issues as soon as it deployed.

'I was shaking and absolutely terrified. I just wanted to be back home or on the ground.

'I did not really understand what was happening, I decided to cut away [to the reserve]... Straight away as the reserve deployed I could feel something was not right, I was spinning, spinning really fast.

'I got the twists out but the G-force was incredible. I know when I hit the ground there was a metallic bang. Then everything went black.'

The court also heard blood found by the gas fitting he sabotaged matched his DNA. 

He will be sentenced on June 15.

Wife was treated as a 'hostile witness' after told trial she lied to police to make husband look bad

The trial of Army sergeant Emile Cilliers hinged on the contradictory evidence given by the wife he was accused of attempting to murder and who became a 'hostile witness' to the prosecution.

After telling the original trial at Winchester Crown Court that she had 'despised' her husband for his 'affairs, lies and deceit', Victoria Cilliers backtracked on the statement she had given to police two years earlier.

The 42-year-old said that at the time she had wanted to 'get her own back' on her husband.

A key factor in the trial was the amount of time Cilliers had to allegedly tamper with his wife's parachute in the toilets of the hangar at Netheravon Airfield, Wiltshire.

The court instructed chief instructor Mark Bayada to carry out a filmed reconstruction of the process and it took him just over five minutes to complete the staged sabotage.

In her first interview Mrs Cilliers stated he was only alone with the parachute for 'two minutes' but in a second interview she amended this to between 'five and 10 minutes'.

But in court, Mrs Cilliers said she had 'exaggerated' because she had been angry with her husband as she had just learned from the police the extent of his infidelity.

The revelation caused a major disruption to the trial as the prosecution successfully applied to the judge for Mrs Cilliers to be treated as a hostile witness.

This meant that she was no longer treated as a witness for the prosecution and allowed prosecutor Michael Bowes QC to cross-examine her as if she was a defence witness.

The court heard that Mrs Cilliers was asked by police why she had changed her accounts between her two statements.

She told them she had not told them everything in her first interview on April 28 2015, because 'my gut instinct was absolutely no way on Earth would he do something like that'.

Giving her reason for her account in the second interview five days later, she said: 'Since finding out I had no idea when he last told the truth about anything, then go for it, warts and all.'

But her evidence reverted towards her original timeframe when she told the jury: 'It was probably somewhere in between.'

When asked if she had always told the truth, she replied: 'Not always. The extent of his lies and deceit had been disclosed to me and I just wanted to get my own back to a certain extent.'

She said she had later wanted to amend her statement but had been told by a police liaison officer that she would not be allowed to and that 'no-one would believe me'.

She continued: 'You have to remember I had been dealing with this day in, day out for months. It was horrific. I was injured, with a baby. I had enough at that point, I wanted everyone out of my life.'

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'Ashamed and stupid I fell for such a creature': Anguish of the '50 Shades' Tinder lover who army sergeant wanted to run off with - despite STILL sleeping with his wife and ex-partner

By Martin Robinson, Shekhar Bhatia and Allan Hall for MailOnline 

Emile Cilliers was an unlikely and irresistible magnet to the opposite sex who was bedding three women at the same time when he was plotting to murder his wife.

The twice-married father of six had a string of affairs, notably with his first wife Carly, who he married after he arrived from South Africa around 20 years ago.

They divorced in 2004 after he joined the Army and chased a career in the SAS but they rekindled their relationship a decade later, meeting for casual sex and even planned to 'christen' Victoria Cilliers' new car by having sex in the back.

He was also having an affair with Stefanie Goller, an extreme sports fanatic, who he had met on Tinder in November 2014 - six months before his wife's parachute crash.

Friends in Austria told MailOnline Stefanie believed they could have settled down and had children and 'now she hates herself for that.'

One said: 'She feels ashamed - ashamed and stupid that she fell for such a creature'. 

Emile Cilliers was an unlikely and irresistible magnet to the opposite sex who was bedding three women at the same time including Stefanie Goller (left) when he was accused of trying to murder his wife Victoria (pictured together on their wedding day in 2011)

The twice-married father of six had a string of affairs, notably with his first wife Carly, who he married after he arrived from South Africa around 20 years ago. They divorced and rekindled their relationship

Sex mad CIlliers was also in contact with escorts trying to organise 'bareback' unprotected sex with them in a liaison he offered to pay £100 for as long as he could film it. 

During his two trials he was described as an 'unfaithful pantomime villain' and 'penniless scoundrel' who was a habitual cheat 'lying to each of the women in his life'.

His lack of honestly was admitted by his own defence lawyers who put it down to mounting debts and suggested he was in the midst of a mid-life crisis. 

Such was the power he had over his wife it emerged that police had to remind her she was banned from seeing him when they feared she planned to fly out to South Africa to see him six months after he was accused of trying to murder her.

These are the women Emile CIlliers left in his wake:

The 50 Shades lover sex mad soldier met on Tinder and texted 725 times per day and told: 'To be with you, I would do anything.'

Miss Goller met her lover on Tinder and he would fly out to Austria to spend time with her. Cilliers' trial heard they may have also been looking to move in together

Cheating army sergeant sent a flurry of 50 Shades of Grey-themed sexts to his second lover who he met on Tinder - but she was left 'ashamed' she fell for him, MailOnline can revealed today.

Stefanie Goller, 30, contemplated moving to Britain after Emile Cilliers showed her a house on the property website Zoopla which he said he would buy for her. 

Cilliers had lied to Miss Goller by saying he and his wife were separated and lied saying she had cheated on him and had become pregnant.

Before he tried to kill his wife he told her: 'To be with you, I would do anything'. 

Stefanie is now in hiding, believed to be with skydiving friends in South America, as Cilliers faces jail for trying to murder his wife.

'She feels ashamed - ashamed and stupid that she fell for such a creature,' said a former secondary school friend in the Olympic Village section of Innsbruck where her mother still lives.

'Stefanie has an amazing lust for life, is extremely sociable and fun to be with. It always puzzled us as to why she always ended up with the wrong guy. But she did. Often.

Her friend added: 'She envied her sisters with their lovely children. She wanted children with Cilliers and now she hates herself for that.'

Cilliers would send up to 725 messages a day to Stefanie Goller, who he started dating with while on a ski holiday.

Such was his lust for her he asked her to be his 'nude cleaner' the day after he his wife's parachute crash.

Another sent to his lover while his wife lay in hospital with a fractured spine and broken ribs and pelvis read: 'I can't imagine anything like that happening to you, all I can think about is you.'

On the day after the crash he asked Miss Goller: 'Will you be my cleaner? I only like nude house cleaners. I pay with hugs and kisses.'

Miss Goller then told Cilliers she loves him in uniform, he replies: 'You going onto [sic] salute me?'

And in reply to her message 'I guess sometimes I will have to obey you', Cilliers said: 'Will you call me your Mr Grey?' - a reference to the racy 50 Shades series of books and films. 

The qualified skydiving instructor (pictured) travelled at least four times afterwards to the UK for romantic encounters with the man she believed would be with her for the rest of her life.

South African Cilliers, hid his secret life from his wife, who had only discovered his infidelity shortly before his arrest.

After meeting him in her native Innsbruck in the autumn of 2014, she quickly fell in love. 

The qualified skydiving instructor travelled at least four times afterwards to the UK for romantic encounters with the man she believed would be with her for the rest of her life.

There was also a New Year break in the German capital Berlin in 2014 and talk of a holiday together in Honduras which never materialized.

The court heard Cilliers wanted to start a new life with Miss Goller.

In two messages four months before the incident, Cilliers tells Miss Goller, who was in the United States: 'I will sacrifice and give up so much for you... I just never want to let you go.'

Another, a month later reads: 'To be with you, I would do anything.' 

Police said his internet history revealed Cilliers 'looked at houses for sale in Wiltshire on April 8, 2015, on Zoopla' - but he claimed it was not a property for them to live in. 

Friends in Innsbruck said that before Cilliers came into Stefanie's life she had a seemingly steady relationship with a fellow skydiver named Andy.

In 2010 her mother bought a 4500 metre jump for them when she holidayed with them in Italy.

She wrote excitedly on her Facebook page of watching them both jump out of the aircraft with eight other parachutist. But it is unclear why the love affair fizzled like all her other romances.

In 2012 her mother also travelled to Athens in Greece, where Stefanie was working, to spend a short break with her.

Her mother and father divorced in 2013, reportedly an emotional time for Stefanie.

That vulnerability ultimately led to her looking for love online - and the arms of Emile Cilliers. 

The scorned second wife who 'despised' her lying and cheating husband but needed police to warn her not to see her husband after his arrest

Victoria Cilliers had threatened to 'end it all' because of her husband's habitual cheating - but told the court the parachute crash was not her own plot to kill herself

Victoria Cilliers had threatened to 'end it all' because of her husband's habitual cheating - but always denied that the parachute crash was her own suicide plan. 

Although she admitted she despised Emile Cilliers it appears she was willing to put his infidelity and money problems down to approaching 40.

Police even had to warn her not to fly to South Africa fearing she wanted to see him six months after he was accused of plotting to kill her.  

Four years before her parachute crash the couple found love after both had divorced previous partners.

Emile and Victoria, believed to have both been stationed at an Army base in Woking, met shortly after his separation from his first wife Carly and bonded over their love of skydiving.

In 2011 they travelled to South Africa to get married in a small ceremony near where Emile's parents now live. 

He even went down on bended knee to say his vows and one guest told MailOnline the couple 'couldn't keep their hands of each other.'

By August 2013 Emile had finished his military training and the couple bought their house in Amesbury the following month. Registered in Victoria's name, it is mortgage-free.  

But within a year their idyllic life together was shattered as it emerged her husband was cheating on her and was saddled with debts.

Mrs Cilliers told his trial she decided to leave everything to their children in 2014 because he was unfaithful and 'bad with money'.

She said: 'I'm an intelligent person who knew what was going on. I was starting to feel insecure in the marriage, I knew he was having an affair, I wanted to get it done sooner rather than later.' 

She had paid off his debts and got him extra work packing parachutes to pay the money back. 

Mrs Cilliers, pictured outside court, admitted she had planned to leave her husband before their wedding anniversary months after the alleged attempts on her life

In late 2014 she learned he spent New Year's Eve with his lover Stefanie Goller, who he met on Tinder, and began feeling suicidal because it was the 'final straw', she said.

Mrs Cilliers revealed she had set a time limit of their wedding anniversary in September 2015 for him to 'shape up or ship out' but he was then accused of trying to kill her in the March and again days later.

Such was her fury towards the father of her two children that Mrs Cilliers said she lied to police about her husband's actions in the aftermath of the parachute jump fall 'to get her own back' after she had learnt of his 'lies and deceit'.

She said that she 'despised' her husband, Emile, after becoming suspicious about his extra-marital affair which had pushed her to suicidal thoughts.

Her husband had around £22,000 of debts and the prosecution believed he would receive £120,000 life insurance as a result of Mrs Cillier's death.

She told jurors she had exaggerated the amount of time her husband had spent alone with her parachute in toilets at Netheravon Airfield, Wilts, where she later sustained horrific injuries because 'she was out for blood'. 

When asked if she had always told the truth, she replied: 'Not always. The extent of his lies and deceit had been disclosed to me and I just wanted to get my own back to a certain extent.'

Mrs Cilliers, who walked into court unaided and chose to stand to give her evidence, said that she had later wanted to amend her statement but had been told by a police liaison officer that she would not be allowed to and that 'no-one would believe me'.

She continued: 'You have to remember I had been dealing with this day-in-day-out for months, it was horrific, I was injured with a baby, I had enough at that point, I wanted everyone out of my life.' 

She first told detectives he went missing for 'a couple of minutes' but in a second statement said it was 'over five minutes' but admitted later: 'It was probably somewhere in the middle of that'.

She added: 'I was very angry. I was out for blood. I made it sound worse than it was because I was humiliated – I wanted him to suffer. I got to the point where the extent of his lies and deceit had been disclosed to me and I wanted to get my own back to a certain extent.' 

Victoria was born in the small Scottish town of Haddington, east of Edinburgh, in 1975. She was the first child of Michael Kilby, a retired computer manager, and his wife Veronica, a nurse. A brother, Christopher, was born four years later.

The family lived a comfortable life in a £400,000, five-bedroom home. Victoria, who is thought to have attended the independent Edinburgh Academy, was determined to serve in the Armed Forces.

But she suffered heartbreak at an early age. Her mother died in 1992, aged 46, after a battle with cancer. Victoria was just 17 years old.

Her father remarried three years later, to Ann, a retired pharmacist with two children. Today the couple live in Dalkeith, Midlothian.

Distraught at the loss of her mother, Victoria focused on her Army career and worked her way up to the rank of captain. While stationed at ATC Pirbright, the military training centre near Woking, Surrey, she developed a love of skydiving and eventually became an instructor.

Pirbright was probably where she met Captain Liam Fitzgerald-Finch, her first husband, whom she married in 2004 in her family's parish in Haddington. Her brother Chris was the sole witness.

Liam was a dashing Army officer who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and received the Queen's Gallantry Medal for defusing bombs in Helmand in 2008.

But he was often away on tours of duty, and admitted that 'ludicrous work pressure' cost him his marriage and eventually forced him to leave the military.

By 2011 she had found love again with Emile Cilliers but within years she faced more heartbreak with her unfaithful husband on trial for twice trying to kill her.

The ex-wife who the Army sergeant continued to have sex with years after they divorced

Carly Cilliers met her husband in a pub and would later rekindle their relationship around a decade after their divorce

Emile Cilliers met his first wife Carly in a pub when he travelled to Britain from South Africa on a working visa around 15 years ago.

After a whirlwind romance they married in Oxford before moving to Ipswich where he took a job working as an assistant manager of a nightclub.

It was in Suffolk's county town he decided to join the army.

Cilliers said: 'In 2004 one day I was walking to work and came across an army careers office so I popped my head in, they asked if I wanted to join and it went from there.'

Cilliers, who said his father was in the South African army and raised him in a 'regimented and disciplined lifestyle', passed through the early stages of his career with ease and was awarded 'best recruit' in phase one of his training.

He had ambitions of joining the SAS and was posted in Plymouth, where he and Carly split up.

But they rekindled their relations again and are understood to have had a sex at the time up until he was arrested.

Text messages show to the court ranged from the mundane to the explicit.

In one he told her: 'So tonight. We f*** twice' - in another after his wife's parachute crash he said: 'She is ok for now. Multiple fractures including pelvis she'll need surgery'.

Despite their relationship Ms Cilliers was never asked to give evidence at the trial. 

...And he still had time to contact hookers to organise unprotected sex 

Emile Cilliers looked to the world like a straight-laced Army sgt but in fact was sex obsessed

Debt-ridden Emile Cilliers contacted prostitutes because it gave him a sexual 'thrill' but claimed he never actually met with any after one put her price up by £10, the court heard.

Emile Cilliers was in contact with a 'number of prostitutes', even making arrangements by text to film himself having unprotected sex with one.

In another text exchange, the court heard the 38-year-old was told by a sex worker that meeting her would cost him £60, but he turned her down after telling her that she had advertised £50.

The sergeant, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, today told a court that he never actually met with any prostitutes, saying he just got a 'kick' out of contacting them.

Winchester Crown Court, Hants, heard that Cilliers was a regular visitor to a website called Adultworks, where escorts advertised their services.

When asked about the site, Cilliers told the court: 'There are online profiles of escorts, with videos and lots of other stuff - I cannot exactly remember. 

'I never actually went through with any of it though.'

When Elizabeth Marsh QC, representing Cilliers, asked him why he visited the site, he replied: 'I really don't know to be honest. [I got] some sort of thrill or kick out of it, I suppose.'

Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC said the 38-year-old sent messages to an escort asking how much unprotected sex would be with her and if he could film it.

Just before that he had sent a message to ex-wife Carly to arrange to meet her for sex in his 'new car' - which the prosecutor said was actually Victoria Cilliers' vehicle. 

Mr Bowes QC told Winchester Crown Court: 'On March 13, 2015, there is contact with an escort and the defendant is in touch with Carly Cilliers - he is arranging to have sex.

'In a message to Carly, the defendant says 'you can see the new car, we can take it for a spin. Maybe christen it.

'He is then in touch with a prostitute in relation to sex with her. He says to the escort, 'bareback for £100. Can I film it?'

'She replies 'yes'. Bareback is a widely known term for no form of protection.

'Now, there is nothing wrong with going to prostitutes, but it is indicative of a man who just does what he wants, when he wants.

'He has his life in compartments and it is all about him. We have his relationship with Victoria, he is telling Stefanie he loves her, and he has sex arranged with Carly and then unprotected sex arranged with a prostitute.

'We say here's a man who cared not for Victoria, he treated her with contempt - he did not care about her in any way at all.'

South African fitness fanatic whose upstanding and respected family refused to believe he was guilty of plot to pocket £120,000 life insurance so he could start a new debt-free life

When he returned to South Africa to marry British-born Victoria (pictured together seven years ago, the venue was one of the most exclusive the country had to offer but it was mainly his loyal family that attended

Emile Cillers' 'disastrous' finances gave him the motive to try to murder his wife - but his family always stood by him.

Keen cricketer and skier Emile Cilliers was from the farming and mining community of Ermelo in the Mpumalanga province in the east of the South Africa, around two hours from Johannesburg.

He then moved to the UK in 2000 working in pubs and nightclubs before joining the army.

His parents now live around 1,000 miles away from his hometown in the small holiday seaside spot of Betty's Bay in the Western Cape, 19 miles from Cape Town. It is popular with tourists and is known for being home to a penguin colony.

Locals say the couple are popular and well regarded.

Cilliers' father Stolz is said to work as an engineer overseeing road construction projects, while his mother runs the town's PenguinKids pre-school for around 40 children from low-income families.

His mother Zaan Cilliers flew to Britain to be with her son and help look after his children.

Mrs Cilliers said she knew he was not capable of such a crime.

She said last year: 'I believe in my son, I love him, he is our child and we know him. I don't feel affected by these allegations as I know him and know there is no truth in it. That's all I can tell you.'

When he returned to South Africa to marry British-born Victoria seven years ago, the venue was one of the most exclusive the country had to offer – The Twelve Apostles hotel, on Cape Town's exclusive Atlantic Seaboard, attended by 40 of the couple's friends.

MailOnline could find no one from Cilliers hometown or school who attended the exquisite event.

Cilliers' younger brother, Dirk-Louis also left his home town but moved only a little closer to Johannesburg to the industrial town of Secunda where he works as a production manager on a coal mine.

`He's a good man,' Dirk-Louis Cilliers said of his brother to MailOnline.

`I know my brother, he comes from a good family and a good home. There's no way he could have done the things they said he has done. I am not in a position to give personal details of my brother.'

Their sister, Liza, now lives in the capital Pretoria, married to a businessma, Niel Vermaas, but declined to comment on the case.

Emile and Victoria shared a passion for extreme sports and he was also a keen runner who had dreams of joining the SAS

Koos Kruger, who was Cilliers' headmaster at Ermelo High School, recalled Cilliers did not stand out as an academic 'Errie', the nickname given to students of Ermelo High.

He did not play rugby, the dominant sport at the school, to any high standard but Mr Kruger remembered Cilliers for his achievements in athletics and cross-country running in particular.

`He was the school champion and he did well at local races against other schools,' Mr Kruger remembered. `I do not recall him excelling in any other sport or academics.'

A school contemporary, Reghard Engelbrecht, described him as 'quiet but a popular' pupil.

Victoria Cilliers, 39, was aware her husband was bad with money but he also kept a number of debts from her and kept spending even when she was in hospital

`I was more into the rugby and he was more into the long-distance running. His parents had a house in town and he was a pretty well maintained guy, basically a good guy. He matriculated in 1998 and he left after that.' 

Emile had 'serious issues' with money and debts which would 'spiral out of control', the court heard.

The extent of his money problems was also shown in messages sent between the married couple in December 2014, as their relationship begins to break down.

Mrs Cilliers wrote to him: 'I just checked my bank and no money from you please look into this I can't keep financing everything with no input from you.

'Credit card maxed out and saving for baby furniture gone just covering bills. I hate to keep asking u but it keeps me awake every night.'

And just a week before Christmas, she adds: 'u promised before we married not to use loan sharks and now I get a big guy turning up to door try to intimidate a pregnant woman with a visibly upset toddler. Both of us shaken.'

The sense of Mrs Cilliers' suspicion of her husband arises again in their Whatsapp exchanges that month when he tells her: 'Trust me you don't'.

She replies poignantly: 'Why not? I entered into this marriage with my eyes open. I have loved u more each year.

'Feels like you keep trying to push me away until I jump ship. But I can't. I love you too much. It feels just now that you would be happier without me.' 

After Mrs Cilliers' fall, her husband applied for a number of credit cards and also spent thousands in a shopping spree on gaming items as he 'needed a distraction'

The court heard he spent around £2,000 at Game, Argos and Curry's on various items including a Playstation.

Cilliers said: 'I lived in a small room [in his army barracks] and I needed some distractions, I probably should have paid off some debts but I didn't.'

He added that Victoria Cilliers was unaware of his debts when he moved into her home at the time in Bulford, Wiltshire.

Cilliers said: 'She was not happy about my debts, I didn't tell her from the start but she said she would help me.

Cilliers said: 'I was hiding from Victoria what financial strain I was in. I was living above my means and taking out loans to cover other loans.

'All my money would go on loans and by the end of the month I would take out another one to try and hide it.

'I was embarrassed, I was afraid Victoria would be ashamed of me. I wanted to tell her but was scared of the consequences, I was scared she might leave me.

'At first she offered to help me out with debts from Carly but then I started spiralling out of control again and I was constantly bailed out by Victoria.'

Cilliers told the court when he was under pressure from his wife to repay her, he lied by telling her he was having difficulties and 'getting advice from the Ombudsman'.

He said: 'I kept blaming things when money went missing or did not appear, I never told her the truth about the debts I was in and where the money I got went.

'There came a point where she had enough and gave me an ultimatum - to buy some time I made up a lie.

'I told her I had issues with money being transferred to my account and with financial advisors and that I was asking advice from the Ombudsman.' 

How wife's kit COULD have been ripped apart in a toilet cubicle in just FIVE minutes - but her husband had blamed a mysterious third party

Emile Cilliers had just five minutes to sabotage his wife's parachute in a tight toilet cubicle and the case hinged on whether he could do it, especially after his wife Victoria's evidence undermined the case

Emile Cilliers had just five minutes to sabotage his wife's parachute in a tight toilet cubicle and the case hinged on whether he could do it.

The Army sergeant even admitted he believed that someone was trying to kill Victoria - only it wasn't him.

His extensive knowledge of packing parachutes also gave him the expertise him to quickly damage Victoria Cilliers' kit at Netheravon Airfield in Wiltshire, the prosecution said.

The missing slinks from Mrs Cilliers' parachute were never found and the prosecution case was that the defendant had taken them out and disposed of them.  

Experts had been unanimous that there was no doubt the kit had been tampered with - but the only question was whether Cilliers was capable of doing it. 

Police even used an expert to prove it could be done in the confines of a toilet cubicle in a film shown to the jury, who also visited the airfield and inspected her kit.

But his second wife Victoria threatened the destroy the case after admitting she lied to police about how long her husband was alone with her parachute for before her disastrous fall.

And Mr Cilliers admitted he believed the incident probably meant someone was trying to kill her, but blamed a mysterious third party.

Mark Bayada, the Army Parachute Association (APA) chief instructor at Netheravon, was filmed sabotaging the chute and proved it would take at least five minutes in the toilet stall where Cilliers was accused of doing it

He went on to become an experienced packer at Netheravon Airfield where he would pack hundreds of main parachutes and also enrolled in an advanced course in packing reserve parachutes. 

Victoria Cilliers initially said he was away for more than five minutes but then later admitted it was between two and five minute and lied because she hated him. 

Mrs Cilliers did not have her own equipment available at the time and was required to hire equipment from the base's kit store, the court heard.

Her husband took out the parachute on his wife's behalf before taking it with him when he went to the toilet.

Mark Bayada, chief instructor at Netheravon Airfield, said it required a great deal of skill to do it in a toilet and perhaps a tool

Normal procedure at Netheravon in Wiltshire sees any hire equipment returned to the kit store. 

But the court heard Cilliers stored the parachute in a locker ready for Mrs Cilliers the following day instead.

Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC said Cilliers, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, had the knowledge to sabotage the parachute before Mrs Cilliers' jump on April 5, 2015.

Mark Bayada, the Army Parachute Association (APA) chief instructor at Netheravon,  said: 'For anyone who knows how to [pack a parachute], it's a very simple operation [to remove links while it remains in its bag].

'I was able to do it just by hand [in the video], with no tools.

'[To tangle the main parachute], I opened the main container and exposed the deployment bag, took the lines and passed them round the bag and back in to the container.'

When asked by Mr Bowes QC if he would expect someone with experience of packing reserve parachutes to know you could access them without taking the canopy out, Mr Bayada said he would.

Mr Bayada told the court he was 'baffled' after inspecting Victoria Cilliers' reserve parachute to find the lines wrapped in a ball.

Jurors were shown a video of Mr Bayada inspecting the canopy and harness the day after Mrs Cilliers' terrifying fall.

He had been instructed by the British Parachute Association to carry out an inspection.

The former Army sergeant major said it was 'baffling' when he found eight lines which should have been secured to the harness by two vital links were instead wrapped up in a ball.

The video shows Mr Bayada, wearing an orange hoodie, opening and hanging up the reserve parachute.

With the help of Brigadier Paul Caine and Jackie Harper, who worked at Netheravon airfield, he then starts inspecting where the vital links should have been.

Mr Bayada tells the others in the room there is no sign of the links breaking during the fall.

Giving evidence he said: 'We were really confused by how the lines had become knotted.

'If it had been a normal opening, the slider [a white piece of material attached to all the lines] would have been up in the canopy.

'How could the lines have gone through the slider, they are split between two separate holes, and not only that but the eight strings were balled up all at the same length.

'How could that happen? It's impossible. Somebody [removed the links].'

He said that witnesses presumed Mrs Cilliers, a physiotherapist and former Army officer, must be dead after the horrifying fall.

Miraculously, after rushing to her aid, Mr Bayada said he discovered she was still alive, but had suffered a broken her leg, pelvis, several ribs and suffered spinal damage. 

A picture shows an inspection of Victoria Cilliers' parachute following the incident showing where it had been tampered with

Mrs Cilliers was forced to cut away the main chute and deployed the reserve parachute but it was clear that was not inflating properly either, so Mrs Cilliers span underneath the canopy helplessly towards the ground, witnesses said

Experts said that in the weeks prior to the jump a flight line check of her equipment (pictured) was carried out and it was locked away afterwards to avoid anyone tampering with it

Justin 'Kenny' Everett, a former member of the Royal Artillery parachute display team known as the Black Knights, said he was working as the drop zone controller at the time of the fall.

He said that he spoke to Mrs Cilliers briefly before the jump and said: 'She seemed normal, didn't seem any different to normal.'

Describing Mrs Cilliers' jump, he said: 'Straight away I could see the reserve was not working correctly.

'The reserve parachute was spiralling with only one side attached and the person underneath the parachute was being violently thrown around.' 

He said that Mrs Cilliers was 'very experienced, more experienced than myself in the qualifications she's got'.

Brian Gardner, a fellow APA parachutist, told the court how he saw Mrs Cilliers falling to the ground after her reserve parachute failed.

He said: 'I landed normally and then I kind of heard a scream. The parachutist started spiralling faster and faster, she started off going slowly and getting faster. She went down behind the hangars and trees.'

Mr Gardner told the court that prior to the jump, he had carried out a flight line check of her equipment to ensure it was all present.

The prosecution alleged that Cilliers twisted the lines of the main parachute and removed two of the four slinks - a nylon soft link connector between the lines and the harness - from the reserve. 

Alan Westley, chief rigger of the Army Parachute Association said in a brief inspection of the parachute that it was easy to see the slinks were missing.

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