The wife of an army sergeant accused of attempting to murder her has told a court that she lied to police about her husband’s actions “to get her own back” after she had learned of his “lies and deceit”.

Victoria Cilliers said she despised her husband, Emile, after becoming suspicious about his extramarital affair, which had pushed her to suicidal thoughts, the court heard.

Emile Cilliers, 37, is on trial at Winchester crown court for two counts of attempted murder. He is accused of tampering with her parachute and a gas fitting at their home in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

The trial has heard that the defendant had taken his wife’s parachute into the toilets at Netheravon airfield on 4 April 4 2015, where he is alleged to have tampered with it before it malfunctioned during a jump the following day.

His wife, who suffered a broken vertebra, ribs and pelvis in the fall, admitted she had given differing accounts in her police interviews after the fall on the amount of time her husband was alone with her parachute.

Saying she was generous with the timescales, Victoria Cilliers said: “I said he was away for a couple of minutes, then the second time was of five minutes, which was probably an exaggeration. It was probably somewhere in between.”

Asked whether 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.”

The tampered-with parachute used by Victoria Cilliers. Photograph: Wiltshire police/PA

Victoria Cilliers, who walked into court unaided and chose to stand to give her evidence, 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 do so 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.”

The court was told that she had sent a message to her husband in February 2015, two months before the near-fatal fall, saying that she thought he would “be happier without her”.

She told the court: “I was trying to threaten him, if you do not take a grip, I was threatening suicide.”

When asked if she meant it, she replied: “I am not sure,” adding: “I do not think anyone would understand.”

Emile Cilliers denies two counts of attempted murder and one of criminal damage recklessly endangering life.

The trial continues.

