GUILTY Uk - Emile Cilliers Accused Of Tampering W/ Wife's Parachute, Wiltshire, 5 April 2015

[Alyce]

Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee
21m21 minutes ago
Parachute trial: Emile Cilliers is sitting in the dock listening to the judge summing up the case to the jury


Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee
12m12 minutes ago
Parachute trial: Judge tells jury they must must not hold the defendent's money issues, affairs and lies against him as this is a criminal court and those matters are not a crime however depending on their view on his general conduct and lies they may be relevant to the charges.

 

[Alyce]

Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee
5m5 minutes ago

Parachute trial: Stopped for lunch break. Resumes 14.10 when the Judge will give his directions to the jury.

 

[Legally Bland]

[FONT=&amp]Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee[video=twitter;930077065172475904]https://twitter.com/BBCHelenaLee/status/930077065172475904[/video]More


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[FONT=&amp]Parachute trial: Jury is brought back into court after lunchbreak. Defendant Emile Cilliers is sitting in the dock. Judge Mr Justice Sweeney continues his summing up of the trial - now in it's fifth week.
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[Legally Bland]

[FONT=&amp]Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee[video=twitter;930080066335330309]https://twitter.com/BBCHelenaLee/status/930080066335330309[/video]More


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[FONT=&amp]Parachute case: Mr Justice Sweeney talks directly to the jury as he continues summing up the case. He tells them he will now turn to the evidence.
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[Alyce]

Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee
2h2 hours ago

Parachute trial: Court finished for the afternoon. Judge will continue his summing up to the jury tomorrow morning.

 

[Alyce]

Quite a lengthly summing up - here's hoping for Jury out tomorrow and a quick verdict

 

[Tortoise]

[FONT=&quot]Gas leak at family home. Judge reminds jury Victoria [/FONT]Cilliers[FONT=&quot] (defendant's wife) gave varying accounts about what she said happened after she smelt gas. Judge tells jury they need to ask themselves if she was a witness who was trying to tell them the truth or not

https://twitter.com/BBCHelenaLee
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[Tortoise]

It's hard to see how the texts she sent him could be viewed as untruthful or ambiguous. I find the judge's comment quite strange.

 

[Tortoise]

Seems as if the judge is reluctant to let the jury go and do their thing, or likes the sound of his own voice.

:waiting:

 

[Alyce]

Still going strong .....wonder when the Jury might go out

 

[Alyce]

While we're waiting, I had a look at the Judge's profile

Justice Sweeney
Prior to being appointed a High Court judge, Sweeney was a barrister in the United Kingdom, practising from 6 King's Bench Walk. He prosecuted a number of notable criminal trials, including the perpetrators of the 1984 IRA Brighton bombing and the attempted bombings of 21 July 2005,[5][6] Neo-Nazi terrorist David Copeland[7] and murderers Michael Stone[8][9] and Kamel Bourgass.[10]

He presided over the trial in February and March 2013 of former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne MP and his former wife, Vicky Pryce, for perverting the course of justice contrary to common law.[11] He sentenced another MP Dennis MacShane for fraud in the aftermath of the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal.[12]

More recently he presided over and was sentencing judge in high-profile cases involving terrorists and extremists, such as the two men responsible for the murder of Lee Rigby in 2013[13] and White supremacist bomber Pavlo Lapshyn.[14] He was the presiding judge in the trial of Rolf Harris for various counts of indecent assault dating back to the 1960s.[15][16]

 

[Alyce]

Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee
15m15 minutes ago

Parachute trial: Judge going over eye witness evidence from those who saw Victoria Cilliers after her jump. One described looking up & seeing a 'tangled mess of fabric". Jury also heard during trial that a body bag was taken to the scene because they were expecting her to be dead


Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee
11m11 minutes ago

Parachute trial: Victoria Cilliers spent more than 2 weeks in hospital after falling 4000 feet. Her main and reserve parachutes failed. The court previously heard that VC's light weight and the fact she landed in a newly ploughed field saved her life.

 

[Tortoise]

:bored:

 

[Tortoise]

Don't all faint.

[FONT=&quot]The judge Mr Justice Sweeney sends out the jury to consider their verdicts in the Emile [/FONT]Cilliers[FONT=&quot] case

https://twitter.com/MarkNicolMoS
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[Tortoise]

[FONT=&quot]The jury has retired to consider its verdicts. Judge tells them they mustn't feel any pressure of time during deliberations. "It is by that route that we will ensure that you return true verdicts according to the evidence", he told them.

https://twitter.com/BBCHelenaLee
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[Tortoise]

[FONT=&quot]Jury sent home for the day. Back tomorrow 10am to continue their deliberations.

https://twitter.com/BBCHelenaLee
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[Moll]

It's hard to see how the texts she sent him could be viewed as untruthful or ambiguous. I find the judge's comment quite strange.

I agree. But it's very difficult to know how the judge's summing-up, with the extracts we have, sounded in court. We were all a bit puzzled by Victoria's evidence - the fact that she did sometimes seem to be trying to muddy the waters in her husband's favour. But she said flatly that she didn't sabotage her own parachute and there was physical evidence in the gas leak incident as well as the texts (which i suppose you could argue - but I don't think the defence did - that she had sent to implicate him on purpose).
Btw apologies for for forgetting I'd come in late and not read the first few pages of this thread. If I had I'd have seen all your discussion of the Mail report of 4 October I recently reposted ...also your mention of Ian Stewart, who has sometimes come to my mind too, though different in many ways.

 

[Alyce]

Helena Lee‏Verified account @BBCHelenaLee
9m9 minutes ago

Parachute trial: jury resumes its deliberations in trial of army sergeant accused of trying to murder wife by tampering with her parachute

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Half following this case, are we getting a verdict today? Do you all think he is guilty or not, and will he be found guilty or not?

 

[Alyce]

Half following this case, are we getting a verdict today? Do you all think he is guilty or not, and will he be found guilty or not?

Hopefully a verdict today, but Justice Sweeney went on for so long - 2 days summing up ! - that the Jury may feel they need to have a long discussion before returning a verdict.

I think he's guilty on all counts - will the Jury agree - not sure, but certainly hope so.