Husband Charged With Attempted Murder Of Wife

A husband has been charged with trying to murder his wife by tampering with the parachute she wore on a jump that then failed to open properly, police said today.

Experienced parachutist Victoria Cilliers was seriously injured when she crashed down to earth in a planned 4,000ft dive.

The 39-year-old suffered multiple serious injuries including broken ribs, a broken collarbone, a broken leg and spinal injuries when her main and reserve canopies malfunctioned during a solo jump on Easter Sunday last year.

Today her husband Emile, 36, from Amesbury, Wilts., was charged with two counts of attempted murder and a further charge of criminal damage being reckless to the endangerment of life.

South African-born husband Emile was an instructor with the Royal Army Physical Training Corps attached to the Royal Engineers at the time of the incident.

Victoria, herself a qualified parachute instructor, jumped alone from a Cessna Caravan light aircraft at 4,000ft and as the parachutes failed to open managed to slow herself down and landed on a field near Neatheravon airfield, on Salisbury Plain, Wilts.

Emergency services were called and she was rushed to hospital in Southampton by air ambulance and spent weeks in hospital before being release to recouperate at home in a body brace.