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00:01The perfect murder, the unsolvable crime, does it really exist?
00:07In a TV first, we reveal the cutting-edge technology now used by British police to join the dots
00:15and reveal new evidence in all homicide investigations.
00:19I'm Tim Tate. I've been an investigative journalist for almost 50 years.
00:26I'm Sam Robbins, and I'm a criminal intelligence analyst.
00:30For over 20 years, I've worked alongside detectives on major murder investigations.
00:34Together, in this new series, we are going to discover the fatal mistakes
00:39which prevented the perfect murder from ever being committed.
00:44MUSIC PLAYS
01:20Many killers plan what they believe will be the perfect murder.
01:25Many killers go on to put that plan into action.
01:31Very few, though, try to commit the perfect murder on the same victim twice.
01:43Emile Cillier is the rare exception.
01:47Over the space of just a few days in spring 2015, Emile Cillier tried to kill his wife
01:54Victoria twice.
01:57But because she did live, Emile Cillier's double life as an abusive husband, a serial philanderer,
02:08a fraudster and a would-be murderer rapidly unraveled.
02:16This case continues to be of interest to the public because it's a sexy case.
02:21It has somebody from the military, it has good looking people, it has sex, it has all
02:26sorts that makes it titillating for the public to listen to and to hear the details of.
02:32And they can't get enough of it.
02:35In my career, this was defining for me, to be honest.
02:39I was involved in that case for three years and it was three years of long, hard work.
02:44Emile Cillier stands out purely because of the person he was, purely because of the characteristic
02:50traits that he showed.
02:51Everything Emile did had to bring a benefit to Emile, whether that was financial, sexual,
02:56the extremes he went to to achieve those ends, you rarely see in people.
03:05Sam, Emile Cillier, what do we know about him?
03:08So he originated from South Africa.
03:12He had a relationship with a very young girl, Nicolene, and she's only 13 at the time.
03:18She becomes pregnant at 16, so she's a very, very young mother.
03:22That was the start of a pattern, a repeating pattern of predatory behaviour by Cillier.
03:30And he likes money, doesn't he?
03:31He likes the really good things in life.
03:34I think he probably looked at himself as a bit of a James Bond figure.
03:38He liked all the latest gadgets.
03:40You know, he was very keen on money and the finer things in life.
03:43And he liked that playboy lifestyle of having multiple relationships, despite the fact that
03:49he marries some of the females that he's in relationships with.
03:52He has children.
03:54When he bores of those responsibilities, he just moves on.
03:58So Emile Cilliers is all about Emile Cilliers.
04:02You know, what you're describing are psychopathic traits.
04:07Definitely some psychopathic traits in there.
04:10And the trait that really comes out in all of his behaviours in this case is narcissism.
04:16So people like Emile Cilliers often have a collection of traits, we call them the dark triad.
04:22So there's psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism.
04:26And certainly Emile Cilliers has had elements of all those three traits.
04:29They sort of link together largely through this sort of common aim of manipulation.
04:34But again, this general disregard for other people, the feelings and an inability really
04:40to connect emotionally with people.
04:43Every action that Emile takes is all about furthering his own wants and needs and exerting power
04:51and control over those around him.
04:53So his first major relationship, he fathers two children with her.
04:58He does, but he doesn't hang around very long.
05:02He moves to the UK.
05:04So he essentially abandons his pregnant girlfriend.
05:08And then when he's in the UK, she gives birth to his son.
05:12Emile Cilliers really sees other people as something that he can use for his own gains.
05:18Very quick then to move on as soon as he finds something new or the parts of his life are
05:23not unfolding
05:24as he wished them to.
05:26And he will manipulate and con people in various situations.
05:32In his late teens, early 20s, he moved to the UK.
05:35He worked a number of casual jobs before settling down in Ipswich in Suffolk.
05:40Where he'd met Carly Cilliers, who he subsequently married and had children with.
05:46He forms a relationship with a lady called Carly, who he marries.
05:50And then it goes on to have two more children.
05:54Whilst he was with her, he joined the army, being a South African national, he was allowed to.
05:58And from there, he initially joined the Royal Artillery,
06:01who were based in Lark Hill, just outside Salisbury.
06:05From working with them, he gravitated more towards the PTI side of it.
06:09And on getting promotion, he joined the Royal Army Physical Training Corps as a sergeant.
06:16Narcissistic individuals seek out occupations, or they'll pretend to be from occupations,
06:23that exert authority and control.
06:25And what's quite interesting with Emil Cilliers is that he joins the army.
06:30It's all the things that would appeal to his narcissistic characteristics.
06:34And he becomes a skier for the army.
06:38He's going on lots of skiing expeditions and becomes really very proficient
06:42until he has a very serious skiing accident.
06:45Being married to someone like that can't be easy.
06:51No, absolutely.
06:52And actually, it leads to a breakdown of the marriage from Carly and Emil and Carly separate.
07:00But he has to have physiotherapy as part of his recovery.
07:04And he meets Victoria, who is his physiotherapist.
07:11She is going through a divorce from a very tricky marriage,
07:17a fairly abusive marriage that she was in.
07:20So she's a vulnerable individual.
07:22It's at a time when Emil is essentially looking for his next fix and high
07:29and next victim in terms of female relationship.
07:33So he's on the hunt.
07:34Absolutely.
07:35And, you know, I think what is really clear from the whole of the timeline
07:40is that he's got very predatory behaviour.
07:44She was a captain in the army before leaving and joining the MOD as a physiotherapist.
07:48And I think he saw her as a way to making himself appear higher up in the echelons,
07:57if you like, than he actually was.
07:59And he could use her and her connections in order to do this.
08:03So in the first few months, they were very much in love.
08:08He would love bomb Victoria.
08:09He would make her feel like the best thing in the world
08:12and like he couldn't live without her.
08:14He fastens on to Victoria.
08:16What need is he meeting for her?
08:22What Emil is excellent at, as are all narcissists,
08:26is being able to look at a situation and mirror back
08:31about the behaviours that they want someone else to see in them.
08:36So he knows and he spots very quickly that Victoria is vulnerable.
08:40So he starts to inhabit all the behaviours that are going to be needed to win her over.
08:46And it's a term called love bombing.
08:48And when you see that very, very early on,
08:51when it comes very quickly and it's hard and fast,
08:55it really is a massive red flag that you've potentially got a problem
08:58because someone's trying so hard to win you over.
09:00And if you're Victoria, it's very hard to spot that, isn't it?
09:04There is no quicker way to fall in love than thinking
09:06that you're falling in love with someone who's got your values
09:09and your best interests at heart.
09:10It's not just values though, is it?
09:14Victoria's hobby becomes part of Emil's life.
09:18Yes.
09:22So Victoria's hobby was skydiving.
09:24In fact, it was more than a hobby.
09:26It was a way of life for her.
09:27She was a free-fall skydive instructor
09:30and she'd done over two and a half thousand jumps.
09:32So she was extremely experienced
09:35and very, very well respected in the parachuting world.
09:40Celia trained as a packer,
09:43someone who is qualified to pack the main parachutes
09:47and also the reserve chutes,
09:50which are sometimes deployed
09:51if the main canopy doesn't open or malfunctions.
09:55And by 2013, he'd got full qualifications on both
09:59and was earning extra pay as a packer.
10:04Meanwhile, back at home,
10:06Victoria has given birth to their daughter.
10:09Yes.
10:10Her first child?
10:11Yes.
10:12And Emil's fifth?
10:13Yes.
10:14What's he doing around this time?
10:16So he's certainly not being the loving,
10:20attention-giving father that he should be.
10:23So that love bombing of Victoria in order to win her over
10:27has done exactly what Emil wants it to do.
10:29It's got her into a position where she's married him
10:32and she's had a child with him.
10:34He, on the other hand, is carrying on like he always does.
10:40So from the surface,
10:41everything looked almost picture perfect.
10:43But behind that,
10:44you had a wife that was ignored.
10:46He'd spend many nights away.
10:48He would go to swinging parties.
10:50He would try and coerce Victorians going to swinging parties.
10:53Women he met there,
10:54he would meet subsequently on weekends.
10:56He was on the various dating apps.
10:58So he was constantly looking for sexual partners
11:01whilst married.
11:05Financially, how's the family doing?
11:07Not brilliantly.
11:09So Emil is also, in order to chase the highs
11:12that he so desperately needs, is gambling
11:15and he's starting to spend the family money
11:18and also his playboy lifestyle.
11:20He always wants the finest things.
11:22It's not necessarily about getting the finest things
11:25for his small family.
11:27It's about feeding himself.
11:29So the money starts to decrease
11:32and to the point where he starts to lie to Victoria
11:36about what he needs funds for.
11:38I think, first of all,
11:40one was to fund an operation for his father
11:43and then he starts to steal money from Victoria.
11:45He steals money from his own wife?
11:47He does.
11:49I don't know whether she knew where it was going
11:52because they would never discuss this.
11:53He would never allow that conversation to happen.
11:55But she did challenge him on why money went from her account.
11:59There was one point, I think it was £6,000
12:01went from account to two, three, 2,000 lump sums.
12:06And he just gave her some cock and ball story about
12:08it was a bank's fault, it was this fault,
12:10it was everyone else's fault.
12:12And when she dug down into it,
12:13she realised the money had gone from her account
12:15to his account using their own sort of home computers,
12:18et cetera, the IP addresses of those.
12:21Emil blamed the bank for their incompetence
12:24and he said,
12:25do you think I'm stupid?
12:28This is all your fault.
12:29You're mad.
12:30This is nothing to do with me.
12:33You're paranoid.
12:34And he made her think that it couldn't possibly have been him
12:37and it was all down to her insecurity.
12:41Emile Sillier subjected Victoria to what psychologists term coercive control.
12:49He would criticise her viciously one minute and then praise her like a princess.
12:56Next, it meant she never knew which Emile Sillier she was going to get.
13:02Coercive control is nothing to do with gender, class, age.
13:07It goes across everything.
13:09It's not the obvious broken arm, black eye violence,
13:14but that subtle coercive control where they lose control of their freedom,
13:19their confidence, their finances until they become effectively a shell of themselves.
13:24They're shut away from their friends and their family
13:26and they're just there to serve a person.
13:40We fast forward not very far to November 2014 on your timeline.
13:47Victoria's pregnant with their second child.
13:50Yes.
13:51But Emile is not being any more faithful.
13:54No, he's not. And he has now regained enough fitness to be back skiing with the army.
14:01So he goes on a one-month skiing course to Austria
14:05and he meets Stephanie and he starts to have an affair with her.
14:10And this particular relationship will be critical in the undoing of Emile Sillier.
14:17So Emile had met a lady called Steph Goller.
14:20She became his new infatuation.
14:24Victoria had her suspicions.
14:26She certainly at times thought something was going on,
14:29but he denied it, always denied it,
14:31and would put the blame back on her that she was paranoid and ridiculous.
14:36But did she ever think he would go as far as to try and kill her?
14:39No, absolutely not.
14:41This is just a continuation of his narcissism.
14:44He started another relationship and he wanted to be with her.
14:49He told a load of lies to start this new relationship by saying he was single, etc.
14:54And the only way he could see out of it, if you got rid of Vicky,
14:57get rid of the children, pick up the life insurance, he could start afresh.
15:02Emile Silliers was different to a lot of men who commit murder,
15:07because for him he didn't want to be necessarily actively involved in that murder,
15:13as in face to face.
15:14It needed to be from a distance so that he could distance himself from it,
15:18and he didn't feel, therefore, perhaps that he was part of it.
15:22I think once the decision was made, Emile Silliers would have stopped at nothing.
15:27He needed to move on, and to move on, he needed to get rid of Victoria.
15:33So he plans what he thinks is going to be a perfect murder.
15:38What Emile had done is he'd taken a room at the barracks, all the shots,
15:42so on Sunday night he used to leave home and go to the barracks,
15:46saying it was too difficult to drive on a Monday morning.
15:49Essentially, he used it as a place he could take other women back to.
15:53So on that Sunday, what he did was he put the children to bed early,
15:57had dinner, put Vicky to bed, she went to bed about ten,
16:00he then went downstairs into the kitchen, he loosened the gas valves,
16:03had a gas hob in a brand-new kitchen with an emergency cut-off,
16:07as they all have now, and he loosened the nuts on that
16:09to allow gas to seep into the kitchen,
16:12and he left and went straight to the barracks overnight.
16:16In the process of loosening the knob,
16:21Cillier grazed his knuckle.
16:23He didn't notice, but there was a tiny smear of blood.
16:27He then got in his car, he didn't drive straight to the barracks.
16:32On route, he stopped to have sex with his ex-wife, Carly,
16:36and then arrived at the barracks and texted love messages to Stephanie Colley,
16:43all the while knowing that the gas was building up in the kitchen,
16:47and that when Victoria switched on the gas hob,
16:53she and their two children would be blown to bits.
16:58He was prepared to try and blow up the house with a gas leak
17:02whilst his children were there.
17:04You know, I get marriages, relationships fail,
17:08I get, rightly or wrongly, that people then end up
17:11in some sort of violent confrontation with each other.
17:13But how rarely do you see people that are willing
17:16to allow their children to be collateral damaging and be killed?
17:20Even amongst lots of criminals, that would be seen as quite extreme,
17:24but he doesn't have this conscience in a sense
17:27that if he gets away with it, then it won't matter to him,
17:31he won't feel bad.
17:32The only real consequences that he wants to avoid is being caught.
17:38Victoria became aware when she came down the stairs on a Monday morning
17:41that there was a smell of gas in the kitchen.
17:44So when she smelt gas, she messaged a meal and said,
17:48do you know anything about this?
17:50And he said to her, have you put a stove on?
17:53And she replied immediately, well, I'd rather not, obviously.
17:56He didn't come home at that time, he just left her to sort it out.
18:00So she actually called out another gas engineer
18:02who came and found the loose nut and tightened it up.
18:08Victoria's suspicion is already building that all is not well here.
18:12So she sends him a sort of jokey text saying,
18:17are you trying to kill us?
18:18Which he reacts very badly to,
18:21and obviously does what he does in every situation
18:24where he's being caught out.
18:26He tries gaslighting her in terms of making her think she's going crazy,
18:31he loves them, why would, you know, don't be ridiculous,
18:33why, why would I do such a thing?
18:35But by this point, Victoria's suspicions have definitely raised
18:40to the point where she thinks she needs to take some kind of protective action.
18:44And she does, doesn't she? She takes action to protect her family's finances.
18:49She does.
18:50Unbeknown to Emil, she actually writes him out of her will.
18:56That is a really strong course of action to write your loving husband out of a will,
19:02should you lose your life.
19:03We know he doesn't know about this because he takes his own action.
19:09He does.
19:10So one thing that you'll always look for when you're looking at a murder inquiry is,
19:16has any suspicious activity taken place prior to the incident being discovered?
19:21So one thing that the police would always look for is,
19:24have any insurance policies been taken out?
19:27And lo and behold, in this case, police find that an insurance policy for £120,000
19:33has been taken out on Victoria's life by Emil.
19:37We're now coming to April 2015. Everything's coming to a head.
19:41Yes, his first attempt has failed. So within days, he's hatched another plan,
19:47which possibly was when you look back to 2012, so almost three years earlier.
19:52Did he always have this in his mind that he could manipulate conditions
19:57to the point where he could encourage Victoria to jump out of an aeroplane?
20:02So Victoria and Emil already had a three-year-old child
20:06and Victoria had just had a baby five weeks prior.
20:10She obviously hadn't been jumping since she found out she was pregnant.
20:14And Emil, five days after the gas leak, said to her,
20:19why don't you go and jump this weekend?
20:21It would be lovely for you to get back into it again.
20:24Victoria, thinking she had the old Emil back again,
20:27jumped at the chance and said, yes, I'd love to.
20:31She was now capable of jumping, but with two young children,
20:34she was a little bit dubious about, you know,
20:36is this a sport I want to get back into?
20:38But I still have the same love for it now I'm a mum of two.
20:41So he convinced her to go, they would try it that weekend.
20:44So he come home, they packed up.
20:47Saturday morning, they shot up there.
20:49Now, this is April, May time, so skydiving is very weather-dependent.
20:54It has to be clear, they don't jump through clouds, et cetera.
20:57So if it's any of that, then there's no jumping.
21:00Emil had taken a parachute out for her from the parachute centre.
21:03He had rented it for her because her own parachute was in for repairs.
21:07So that was given to him.
21:08He puts it on his shoulder.
21:10She finishes paperwork, comes over and joins him.
21:13And the little girl says, Mummy, I need to go for a wee wee.
21:16I need to go to the toilet.
21:17So he says, don't worry, I'll take it.
21:20So he takes the little girl into the men's toilets
21:23and he's there a number of minutes, five-plus minutes.
21:26We believe that when he was in that toilet,
21:30we believe that that is when he tampered with the parachute.
21:33She goes and listens at the door
21:35and hears some sort of chingling-type noise.
21:38Difficult to describe, but sort of something in there
21:41that was, you know, a funny noise.
21:43But she comes back.
21:44A minute or two later, Emil comes out with the little girl
21:47and the parachute on his shoulder, and they have a bit of chat.
21:51They then get told, look, it's too cloudy today.
21:54There's going to be no jumping.
21:56But instead of putting the parachute back in the main store
22:00where all the parachutes are stored for the jumps,
22:02Emil ensures that it's placed into Victoria's locker at the airfield
22:06so that she will go and retrieve that exact parachute.
22:09So it's so calculating that he's ensuring every step of this plan.
22:13He's failed once to try and kill her.
22:15He's not going to make that mistake again,
22:18and he's going to ensure that she gets the parachute that's 40 this time.
22:23Mian insisted that Victoria put it into their locker.
22:27This was really unusual, but Victoria didn't want to make a fuss.
22:31The children needed to get home. They needed to be fed.
22:33So she agreed, and they put that parachute that he had rented for her
22:37into their locker overnight.
22:40He would have really taken some pleasure in trying to create
22:45some kind of situation that was indicative of his narcissistic beliefs.
22:49It reflects very much on his personality.
22:51There were probably less audacious, conspicuous ways in which he could have killed his wife
22:56if he really wanted to, but it really reflected on him as a person
23:09The weather had lifted slightly, and Victoria went to Netheravon airfield on her own.
23:14She drove herself.
23:16At this point, she's still expressing milk, breastfeeding,
23:20so there's some text conversations about, you know,
23:22this is, you know, it's quite difficult to find a private space,
23:24and, you know, I feel awkward, and I've got a sort of milk,
23:27so I might just come home, she says.
23:29And he said, no, no, don't come home, you know, stay there, it'll be great,
23:31you'll enjoy it, jump twice if you can.
23:34Yet again, it was bad weather throughout the day,
23:36but at about four o'clock in the afternoon, they said that they could jump,
23:40but they would only go up to 4,000 feet as the cloud cover was very low.
23:44It was going to be a jump called a hop-and-pop,
23:47which meant that almost as soon as you come out the plane,
23:49you pull your parachute, so there's very little freefall.
23:55So she said she was always nervous,
23:59but she put that down to, look, I'm jumped for months, mum of two,
24:02you know, I've got some concerns.
24:04But other than that, you know, the parachute looked fine,
24:06there's nothing untoward about it, visually.
24:09One by one, the divers jumped,
24:12and she watched as their canopies opened
24:15and they floated down towards the ground.
24:18And then she lodged herself out of the plane.
24:23After Victoria left the plane, she was at 4,000 feet.
24:27Almost instantly, she pulled the handle to engage her main parachute.
24:32But to her horror, when she looked up,
24:34she could see that the lines were twisted.
24:37When you deploy, you look up,
24:38and it should be like a rectangle of material above your head.
24:41It visibly demonstrates that it's deployed correctly
24:43and you can fly it.
24:44And she realised straight away something's wrong.
24:46It's not a rectangle of material and she can't use it.
24:49Victoria was both highly experienced and highly trained.
24:54She knew what to do in these circumstances.
24:58She'd been trained to cut away the main malfunctioning chute
25:02and pull the cord of the reserve chute,
25:05which would get her safely to ground.
25:07When you cut away a main parachute,
25:09the reserve comes out almost instantly.
25:12You can pull it manually, but it does come out as an automatic response.
25:16However, when her reserve parachute opened,
25:19she realised that only half of it was attached.
25:22On one side, the slinks, which are a key component of the parachute,
25:27were missing and her parachute was no longer attached on one side.
25:31So now she's not flying at all, but it's put her into a spiral.
25:35And what she says is,
25:38I don't really ever look down.
25:40I don't really ever start to panic.
25:42I just spend my time trying to correct it, trying to fly it.
25:46You know, training kicks in and I try and get on with it.
25:51During the fall, Victoria was conscious of fighting all the way.
25:55And she will say she fought.
25:57She fought with everything all the way down.
26:00This was her life.
26:02She thought about her children.
26:04She thought about them being left without a mother.
26:07But ultimately, she fought to stay alive.
26:11Spectators watched in horror.
26:14They were convinced there was only going to be one outcome for this.
26:19They have an open-top double-decker bus on the apron out the front.
26:23So someone stands at the top with a pair of binoculars.
26:26So straight away, they put up an emergency call
26:28that they can see something is clearly wrong as she's descending.
26:31So straight away, they go towards where she's heading
26:34because she's now heading away from the hangar
26:37and away from the landing site.
26:39She is twisting in the air because of the spin of the parachute.
26:43And she lands about 10 to 15 feet from a road in a ploughed field, a freshly ploughed field.
26:52By chance, that field had been recently ploughed, making the ground of the mud softer for a landing.
27:01And frankly, Victoria had also been well trained in how to protect herself on difficult landings.
27:08And although she was horribly injured with a broken pelvis, spine and a huge number of other injuries,
27:16Victoria Sillier was alive.
27:29Victoria was plunging 4,000 feet towards the ground at a rate of 60 miles an hour.
27:38And when she hit the ground, spectators watched in horror.
27:44No one could surely survive that.
27:47But Victoria did.
27:54Normally, you don't survive that.
27:58Piece of luck for Victoria.
28:00It is genuinely miraculous that she survived this attempt on her life.
28:05And it was down to a couple of factors, really.
28:09One is that she was an incredibly experienced skydiver.
28:14So she did actually know what to do in an emergency situation.
28:19Not that she probably ever would have faced that in her life
28:22or ever witnessed anybody doing it, but she did know what to do.
28:25So she knew how to position her body in the best way to minimise injury.
28:31The other stroke of luck is that she happens to land on a freshly ploughed field.
28:36She miraculously survived.
28:38She is hideously injured with various broken bones and damage to internal organs.
28:44But she does survive.
28:45And amazingly, she is conscious when the rescue team get out to her.
28:53The first person to race to her was a Royal Marine who was up there that day.
28:57He had a body bag in his car, actually.
28:59And he thought that's what they were going to use.
29:01When they get there, they find her sort of semi-conscious and groaning.
29:05Against all the odds, they can't believe it.
29:07They then click into, you know, safety mode, first aid,
29:11calling an air ambulance, etc.
29:14Emile was called by one of the people working at the parachute centre.
29:17They advised of the accident and what had happened
29:20and that she'd survived and was being taken to Southampton Hospital.
29:24Emile didn't say much at all.
29:26He was quite quiet on the phone for a little while
29:28and then said, I shall sort some childcare and I'll go down to the hospital.
29:33And learning that she'd survived the accident, it wouldn't necessarily have bothered him too much.
29:38It would have just been a little bit of an inconvenience.
29:40And he undoubtedly would have tried to do it again
29:43because this was not something that he would have played on his emotions
29:46or any guilt or any worry about anything.
29:49Another good example of his attitude was he was due to go and visit Victorian Hospital in Southampton.
29:57So he searched for a sex worker who lived in the vicinity of Southampton Hospital
30:02so he could go there first before going to see his wife.
30:05Who would do that, you know?
30:07You're going to see a wife who's just fallen 4,000 feet.
30:10She's in intensive care in hospital.
30:13And yet you're more concerned with, can I get...
30:16Can I have sex with a sex worker prior to going to see her?
30:20And that sort of...
30:21Those little things like that really showed how selfish he was,
30:25how much he was concerned with himself above and beyond anyone else.
30:29The chief instructor at Netheravon Airfield had been the first at the scene of Victoria lying on the ground.
30:36He had scooped up the parachute after Victoria had gone,
30:39but very quickly noticed that something was just not right about the parachute
30:44and that he could see that certain aspects of the parachute was actually missing.
30:49So on the Monday, he called police.
30:52I happened to be working on CID at the time in Salisbury
30:55and his call came through to the CID office.
30:59As I was almost the only officer that was working on that day, the call fell to me.
31:05At that time, it wasn't a criminal investigation.
31:08It was a, let's scope this out, let's see what's happened.
31:11Is there anything there?
31:13You know, we'll talk to Victoria, we'll talk to some people up there,
31:16we'll get the parachute examined and then we'll assess it from there.
31:19So that was the initial phase of it, if you like.
31:24So in terms of a forensic investigation, especially one which involves physical evidence,
31:30then that can provide clues in the terms of an investigation.
31:35So where we have a damaged parachute, then not only can we examine the damage itself,
31:40but we can potentially link that to a tool that may have been used to cause that damage.
31:47The DNA technology that we use today is very sensitive.
31:52It can recover DNA from a matter of a few cells.
31:57So it means that we can wipe a swab or apply a small piece of sticky tape to an area
32:04and speculatively recover the DNA of an individual.
32:09The British Parachute Association had a look at the parachute and they came back to us and said,
32:17look, we can find nothing wrong with a parachute, but we can't rule out someone manually interfering with it.
32:23So that was a massive red flag then, because if there had been a reasonable explanation, they would have found
32:28it.
32:28This obviously led me to think, well, who else is involved? Who else could be involved with this?
32:35Netheravon Parachute Centre is a military base, which means that to get onto the base and onto the parachute centre,
32:41you have to have ID and you have to go through security to get there.
32:47So this narrowed down the amount of people who could have been involved quite quickly.
32:51We started to look at the last people who had been anywhere near that parachute.
32:55And of course, Emile Silliers was one of the last people to touch that parachute.
33:01So we were interested in him, no more than that initially.
33:04At the same time as that came in, we were approached by a very good friend of Victoria's.
33:13After hearing about this incident, her friends, one in particular,
33:17decides that they really ought to let the police know that all wasn't well in the marriage.
33:22I took that call and that call was to change everything.
33:27Victoria's friend, who was also a captain in the army, said that she was not happy with the situation,
33:32that Emile and Victoria did not have the happy marriage that outwardly they appeared to.
33:37She said she'd seen so much about him that made her very suspicious about his actions on that day.
33:44She actually said that if he had been anywhere near the parachute,
33:47then she would be concerned that he was involved.
33:51At that point, Emile does need to be spoken to.
33:54You could just treat him as a witness or you could treat him as a suspect.
33:58The benefits sometimes of treating people as a suspect is you get powers of search
34:01off the back of that, of their house, of their workplace, etc.
34:06As a person charged in that investigation, my gut feeling was I wanted him arrested,
34:11I wanted that sort of control and I wanted the powers of search.
34:15So I made the decision at that point, we would arrest him and interview him.
34:21From what you've found and laid out, Emile Cillier's reaction to being arrested and questioned is revealing, isn't it?
34:32It's so revealing. So when police do decide that they're going to go and arrest him, he's actually at work.
34:38So he's a physical trainer for the army by this point.
34:41And he is furious that police have dared to arrest him in front of his subordinates.
34:50Because he's losing face?
34:52Because he's losing face and also losing control.
34:56And one thing Emile Cillier hates is to lose control of the situation.
35:01When a prisoner is booked in, they're always given the opportunity of a solicitor.
35:06Emile, however, said, I don't need a solicitor. I'm happy to go to interview right now.
35:12So we went to interview, thinking that he would say no comment because that's something that's very common as well.
35:18But not Emile. He wanted to talk and he wanted to tell us everything.
35:23And he talked for six hours.
35:26And he says things, you know, I'm a good father to my children, but I know I'm a bad husband.
35:31I don't love Vicky. I want to be away from Vicky. I want to leave her. I'm in love with
35:36Steph.
35:37I want my life to be with her.
35:39And he talks about his relationships with other women, you know, both at swinging parties and sex workers.
35:46It's almost as if he's trying to include you in it and be a bit, you know, lads together.
35:52You're police, I'm military. We all know what it's like.
35:54But it's such an extreme version of what he's doing. This is just putting up loads of red flags.
36:00When you consider he'd been arrested for attempting to murder his wife, most people would be nervous.
36:06The first thing they would do would be to protest their innocence and say, I don't know why you think
36:10this has happened.
36:11But not Emile. At no time did he protest with any urgency that he had not tried to kill his
36:18wife.
36:19At no point do I think it ever occurs to Milsina's that he's going to be outfoxed by the police.
36:25He thought he was cleverer than them. Yes, absolutely.
36:28I think he thinks that they're not going to be able to unpick this one.
36:32He thinks he's got away with a perfect murder. Yes, absolutely.
36:39Victoria's at home, so she's been in hospital for two weeks or so.
36:42We sat her down and I explained to her about he denied maternity of his little boy that he had
36:47and that he was having an infatuation with another female, but I wouldn't tell her who it was,
36:52and that he wanted to leave her. I said, but these things cause me grave concern
36:57and that I can't allow him to be here with you because I've got a duty of care to yourself,
37:04also a duty of care to other females and a duty of care to investigate this now.
37:08Because if he has done this, then you're at risk.
37:12And at that moment she just broke down completely.
37:16I think that was probably the first time when she faced up to what her marriage and relationship had been
37:21all about.
37:23And then when we went to leave, that's when she said, well,
37:26she says, now you've told me that, you better know about the gas leak.
37:29So we had no knowledge of that at all until that point.
37:34So, absolute double whammy.
37:36But after that, she very much closed down
37:41and she would never accept that Emile was guilty.
37:45And she wanted us to start an investigation.
37:49In September 2016, Emile Cillier was charged with two counts of attempted murder of his wife, Victoria.
38:20The case came to trial almost two years later.
38:24And even then, Cillier might have got away with it.
38:30When we get to court, Emile Cillier turns up.
38:33He looks like he's dressed from Savile Row.
38:36He's in a three-piece suit. He has a tie pin.
38:38And he is immaculate.
38:41Every day he's at court, he is immaculate.
38:44But he's also incredibly laid back.
38:47And when he's there, he swans around court like he owns it.
38:52Not a care in the world.
38:53He would sit in the dock at the back and he'd chew gum, looking bored.
38:58Not really paying any attention to the evidence that was given.
39:01Almost as if this is just pointless.
39:03I'm clearly innocent and I'll be walking out of here.
39:05Why are you wasting my time?
39:07And he never changed from that demeanour.
39:09There was one point where we were waiting for something,
39:12wondering where Emile was.
39:14And he was downstairs chatting up this young lady from another court hearing.
39:18You know, sat next to her on the public benches downstairs.
39:22During the first trial, Victoria Cilliers was called to the stand
39:26to give her a version of what had happened.
39:29As soon as she took to the stand, she started to go back on what she had told police.
39:33She said that she hadn't been given time to read her statement
39:37before being forced to sign it.
39:39She said that police hadn't kept her informed
39:42and that in actual fact, Emile had not spent as long in the toilets
39:45with the parachute as she initially claimed.
39:48She then also said that she thought she had cut away a good parachute.
39:52And we're sitting there thinking, I don't understand, I don't...
39:56I get you weren't ever going to accuse Emile of anything,
39:59but I didn't understand why she spoke out against us so vociferously.
40:04And that damaged, that did damage the case a lot.
40:11In truth of it, I think Victoria, being a very, very smart woman,
40:16suddenly thought, what happens if Emile doesn't get convicted?
40:20He's going to be at liberty to harm me again.
40:23He would try for a third time.
40:24Yes, that he would try for a third time.
40:26So she wanted to appease that characteristic of his nature to say,
40:31I'm not against you and actually this has all been a massive mistake,
40:34because I think she was genuinely frightened.
40:37We had a clinical psychologist assess Emile Silliers
40:41and he assessed him as a narcissistic psychopath
40:45and a very dangerous one at that.
40:48But Emile had an amazing hold over women
40:51and they end up in this coercive and controlling relationship
40:55where they are just pawns in his game.
41:01Ultimately, the judge decided to declare her what's known as a hostile witness.
41:06This means that her video interviews would be played in full for the court
41:10and for the jury.
41:11And she could be then questioned about those videos.
41:15The jury couldn't reach a verdict.
41:18It deadlocked.
41:19And after two of the jury members pleaded to be released from service
41:23because they were suffering from extreme stress,
41:26the whole jury was discharged and the trial was stopped.
41:30A new trial was started within a month.
41:35In the first trial, we had tried to spare Victoria's blushes.
41:38But for the second trial, the jury needed to know what sort of man Emile Silliers really was.
41:44We had not brought in the fact that Emile Silliers visited sex workers.
41:49He visited swinging parties.
41:51He was a really unpleasant individual.
41:53But we had to bring all this in because the jury had to know.
41:58I was allowed to give evidence and I was asked about coercive control.
42:04So I explained about how police try and deal with coercive control,
42:08how domestic violence isn't just about black eyes and the obvious.
42:12It's more subtle and it's a lot more insidious than that.
42:16And she was a victim of this.
42:17So when Vicky gave evidence and she said the same thing the second time,
42:21there was a balance to it that the jury could see.
42:24I think they understood her position then.
42:26By the end of the second trial, we had done everything we possibly could.
42:32Thankfully, the jury saw through Emile and he was found guilty.
42:38He showed no remorse at all.
42:41Even at sentencing, when the judge sentenced him to life in prison,
42:45with a minimum of 18 years, he didn't bat an eyelid.
42:48There was absolutely no expression on his face whatsoever.
42:52At the end of the second trial, it was three years since day one.
42:56You just wanted to jump up and down and scream and punch the air and say yes.
43:01You have to retain that professional outlook and sit there and smile.
43:05I was emotionally and physically exhausted.
43:09When that jury came up with the first word of guilty, I broke down.
43:13I broke down in tears. I just couldn't contain it any longer.
43:17This had been three years of hard graft, but we got where we needed to get.
43:22We had got a very, very dangerous man behind bars and behind bars for a very long time.
43:33It's nice to sit back. I think you've had a really big case at the end of your career
43:36and you've actually brought it home and you've got a conviction from it.
43:40It's what you join for. Originally, you know, I joined to lock up bad people.
43:46And at the end of my career, I got a chance to take on someone who was truly evil, truly
43:50horrible.
43:52It would take a lot of work to try and rehabilitate somebody with those kind of personality traits.
43:57There's often some research that shows even sort of giving treatment to psychopaths
44:03actually makes them to some extent worse.
44:04They actually can then learn the emotional ways to manipulate people.
44:08So whether he can be rehabilitated is really kind of a long-standing question
44:12that goes against lots of people of his type of personality.
44:21In your analysis, what made the difference between his plan for a perfect murder
44:30and the conviction which proved it was an almost perfect murder?
44:34He vastly underestimated the investigation team who were dogged in their efforts to get evidence that would help secure a
44:46conviction.
44:47I think he underestimated Victoria. He must have been delighted when the first trial failed.
44:53But he underestimated the people that loved and supported Victoria.
44:58And he most certainly underestimated the investigation team.
45:02The undoing of Emile Silliers is a very interesting question.
45:06I would suggest his supreme confidence. The fact that he talked for six hours.
45:11He told us everything during that initial interview that he thought we would find on his phone, his computers, his
45:18laptop.
45:18But he gave us far too much information. And this was to his detriment ultimately when we were able to
45:24prove his lies.
45:26Emile Silliers may still proclaim himself to be a victim. He isn't the real victims of Victoria, obviously.
45:35But beyond that, the six children Emile Silliers fathered and who have to grow up knowing that their dad was
45:47a would-be murderer.
45:50Their emotions, their needs, their psychological state often gets lost.
45:56And I wish more sensitivity was shown and more attention was paid to them.
46:04Emile Silliers must have thought, by tampering with her parachute, he was going to commit the perfect murder.
46:13Nobody would have suspected him. If she was dead and wasn't there to talk, that murder would have been perfect.
46:48We'll see you next time.
46:50We'll see you then.
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