On Easter Sunday 2015, Victoria Cilliers took a parachute jump, which she had been gifted by her husband, Emile – a man she has described as a ‘fairytale’, and ‘almost too good to be true’.
Her relationship with the then-British army sergeant had been under some stress, but Victoria – an experienced skydiver – believed the present was her husband’s way of trying to turn over a new leaf.
But when an unsuspecting Victoria leapt out of the plane at 4,000ft, both of her parachutes failed, and only her skill and experience in skydiving, and her luck at landing on soft, newly ploughed soil, saved her from death. In fact, her survival was so unlikely, that those who saw her plummet from the sky assumed she must have died, and a body bag was brought to the scene.
Victoria sustained a number of life-threatening injuries during what she assumed had been a terrible accident, but while recovering she would learn via a visit from the police that her parachute had been tampered with – and that the police suspected her husband Emile had done the tampering.
Now a three-part documentary, called The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot, delves into her deadly skydive, as well as what happened in the run-up to the event, and what happened after – including how Victoria defended her husband and even visited him in prison despite what her did to her, because of the coercive control in their relationship.
Victoria Cilliers is pictured with her husband Emile, who was jailed after he tried to kill her twice
The Channel 4 series weaves documentary testimony with verbatim drama to paint a portrait of the people involved and how the story unravelled.
Using police transcripts, the filmmakers re-create key scenes from the couple’s marriage, the horror jump at Netheravon Airfield in Wiltshire, police interviews, and the court case that followed.
According to Channel 4, the dive ‘set in motion an investigation by a pair of dogged detectives, DC Maddy Hennah and DI Paul Franklin. They spent two years pulling at the threads of his life, revealing affairs, debts, sex clubs, escorts, and murderous intent’.
Actors play Victoria, Cilliers and investigating officers Detective Inspector Paul Franklin and Detective Constable Maddy Hennah of Wiltshire Police, whose work would bring military PT instructor Cilliers to justice. Meanwhile, the real-life people appear in talking heads.
The detectives discussed how, as they tried to investigate, they found that Emile had covered his tracks well: their case was all circumstantial.
They compiled an extensive dossier, with audio, visual and written evidence, building what Channel 4 described as a ‘compelling picture of a sociopathic narcissist who groomed and exploited everyone in his life’.
Things were to become even more complex, when the court case began and Victoria turned against the police to side with her husband, revealing what the documentary describes as ‘the insidious nature of Emile’s controlling behaviour was revealed’.
This is shown during the first of the three episodes, when DC Maddy Hennah describes talking to Victoria, describing her as ‘very matter of fact’, and saying she ‘didn’t show much emotion’.
Despite Emile tampering with her parachute during a 2015 skydive, Victoria (pictured in 2018) miraculously didn’t die
‘I think she was trying to keep everything very calm and very level in her responses,’ she added.
Meanwhile, DI Paul Franklin added: ‘She was quite stoic, quite cold. You never really got a feel from her, you never really got any emotion from her. You never really felt you got to know her, [it was] very difficult to build that rapport or find some common ground.’
When asked by police if she’d been arguing with her husband, she told them they had had arguments, saying: ‘I don’t think you can be married for that long without arguments’.
Victoria then paused, before adding: ‘He’s an amazing father.’
However, while Victoria was giving the investigators a story about how good her relationship was, they learnt via a phone call from one of her friends that the marriage was not a good one.
While the couple appeared to have a ‘picture perfect’ with their two children and nice home, the friend said the reality was not the same as the image – and that she was concerned that the accident was more than just an accident.
According to the investigators, they took this call very seriously.
When arresting Emile, who lived part-time at the barracks, DC Maddy Hennah says he remained totally silent. So when they took him for an interview, they expected he would say nothing.
But according to DI Paul Franklin, this was not what happened, and in fact, during the six-hour interview, Emile ‘did not stop talking’.
Victoria Cilliers (pictured in April 2024) says she now realises the extent of what Emile did – although it took years for her to accept that he tried to kill her
Among the many things he discussed, Emile said that the marriage had been good at first, but faltered after a few years, when he’d gone ski-ing and met a woman called Stephanie. They were friends at first, he said, but then ‘things got a bit more serious’.
He added that while he loved his wife, and she was the mother of his children, he no longer wanted to be in the marriage, saying Victoria had ‘never sexually satisfied’ him – and admitting that she did not know about Stephanie.
DC Maddy Hennah felt Emile was trying to win her over, using his charm, noting that no suspect had ever done this before. He made her uncomfortable, she said, with both investigators having a bad feeling about him.
However, there was no material evidence, no CCTV, for example, making the investigation tricky. Following the arrest, Emile was not allowed to leave the barracks, or contact his wife or children.
They confiscated his phone, finding out that Emile had denied he was the father of his own son while speaking with Stephanie, and assuring her that he would leave his wife.
As she wouldn’t be able to have contact with Emile, Victoria was furious with the police, saying she was relying on him following the accident, and not cooperating with the investigation.
However, while talking with them, she did reveal an important piece of information: that there had been a gas leak not long before her skydiving accident. After sharing this information, she agreed to give a second interview with the police.
Emile Cilliers is pictured after his arrest. He was sentenced to 36 years (and will serve a minimum of 18) after trying to kill his then-wife
During the interview, she admitted that the gas leak was ‘the first time she [was] scared’ of Emile.
She said that when he soon suggested the skydive, she was pleased, saying it was the first time in a long time that he’d shown any interest in doing something together.
However, Victoria then revealed that her husband had ‘taken thousands’ off her over the years, and that she paid for everything. But she was confused, saying she didn’t know how to feel, and that she still loved him, and couldn’t believe he would do this to her.
She also explained that when she’d noticed strange things, like bills for meals she hadn’t eaten with him, she confronted Emile, but he would just get angry if she ever asked if he was seeing someone else.
A segment of the documentary featured an interview with the real Victoria, during which she reflected on the marriage, saying: ‘I didn’t know truth, reality, from what was false. Everything I thought was the truth they were starting to blow apart. I felt like a prisoner in my own home and in my own head.’
The police discovered that Emile had been researching wet nurses the day before the skydive, suggesting that he was expecting his wife to die, and that he wanted to find someone to breastfeed his children. They also found out that he had been in the toilet for five – 10 minutes with Victoria’s parachute before her jump – which would have allowed him to tamper with it.
They also spoke to a psychologist, who assessed Emile, and said he was a psychopath – and a very dangerous one. She advised the police to let him talk and say what he wanted, suggesting this would be the best way to ascertain the information they needed.
During their next interview, in which they discussed his finances, what he understood about wet nurses, and other topics, Emile finally became angry, shouting at the police.
The investigators felt at this point that Victoria wanted them to drop the case, wanting to turn back time, and return to the happy days of her relationship, despite the emerging evidence suggesting he had tried to kill her.
After working on building the case, it went to trial at Winchester Crown Court in 2017. A difficult situation for many reasons, including that she had never been in a court before.
Dramatised footage of the court case shows Victoria claim she ‘elaborated’ when she said Emile had been in the bathroom for five minutes, and that it had been closer to two.
DC Maddy Hennah and DI Paul Franklin (pictured in The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot) were frustrated after the failure of the first court case
When asked whether it was odd that he had taken the parachute into the toilet, she replied: ‘He may not have noticed, it had been around his shoulders.’
Describing this testimony, DI Paul Franklin said it was ‘as bad a scenario as it gets’ adding that ‘inside you’re screaming’, saying she was ‘his witness and she was lying’.
During her testimony, Victoria also suggested that she may have damaged the parachute.
After four days of deliberating, the jury was unable to reach a verdict, leaving DI Paul Franklin ‘annoyed, p***** off’, saying that Victoria knew that what she was saying would mean Emile would get away with it.
She revealed in an interview that she did, in a way, want to go back to how the relationship had been during the first 18 months – but was battling with her subconscious.
Describing her testimony, Victoria said: ‘I was always very aware every answer I gave, the impact that, potentially, it could have on my future. I don’t think I lied a lot. I think I kept a lot of secrets, I kept a lot to myself.’
Following the first trial, the investigators were determined that Emile would be found guilty during the retrial – but they knew they could not rely on Victoria’s testimony.
One of the two main investigators in the case, DC Maddy Hennah, is pictured during an interview for the documentary
In an effort to find more evidence, the detectives tracked down a former girlfriend of Emile, called Nicolene Shepherd, who started dating him when she was 16. She confirmed he was initially very romantic, describing him as ‘trying to make [her] life into a movie’.
When she fell pregnant, he proposed to her. She was just 17-years-old. But despite the relationship, he moved from his native South Africa to the UK for two years. She admits she looked up to me, as he came from a more affluent area and was older. And she came from a broken home, which she never wanted for her own children.
Talking about Emile, she said: ‘He builds you up, breaks you down, builds you up, breaks you down. You don’t recognise it as control because he’s not saying, “You’re not doing that”. You just know you’re not doing that because there are consequences.’
Their relationship finally came to an end when Emile’s mother told Nicolene that her son had got married.
During the build-up to the second trial, despite not being allowed to contact Victoria, Emile sent her messages by posting videos on YouTube, filming himself playing the guitar and singing Stand By Me, which detectives described as ‘creepy’.
During the second trial, Emile was described by a reporter as ‘beautifully turned out’, and as if he was ‘enjoying the attention’.
Giving testimony again, Victoria stood by Emile, insisting that he had done nothing wrong, and again saying there was nothing strange about him taking her parachute into the bathroom.
However, this time, the police were prepared, saying they wanted to let the jury know that Victoria was saying things she ‘wanted to believe’, and that they wanted to show that she was a ‘victim of coercive control’, which is why she was supporting Emile.
In October 2018, Emile was sentenced to 36 years, with the judge describing his offending as ‘extremely serious’, and saying his behaviour amounted to ‘two attempts to murder [his] wife’. He will serve a minimum of 18.
Speaking about the outcome of the second trial, Victoria says she was ‘confused’, and felt completely numb. Even three years after the event, she said it was difficult ‘coming to terms’ with everything, and admitting that she was struggling to come to terms with the reality that Emile tried to kill her – and so callously.
NOW: Victoria Cilliers (pictured in the docuseries) says she doesn’t understand how anyone could do what her ex-husband did to someone they had children with and were supposed to love
After the trial, she even visited him in prison, where he told her that he hadn’t tried to hurt her, and that his affairs had not been ‘as bad as the police’ made out. He even tried to get her to get back together with him.
He kept calling, which she now sees as him ‘trying to draw [her] back in’, and during one call, she told him she wanted a divorce – a moment she now describes as ‘freeing’.
Now Victoria says that looking back over the relationship, ‘things started slotting into place’. She described one time she had to pick him up from a nightclub because he was drunk and lost his wallet. When they got home, he started crying and saying he was a monster.
She describes the alcohol as working like a ‘truth drug’ on that occasion – although she ignored it at the time.
‘I have started seeing it all,’ she now says. ‘This person, and what they’ve done to me….I don’t know how you can do that to someone who you loved and had children with.’
The first episode of The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot, airs on Tuesday June 11 at 9pm on Channel 4. The second and third episodes air on Wednesday and Thursday.