AN ARMY sergeant accused of attempting to kill his wife by tampering with her parachute may be a "pantomime villain driven by lust" but he had no motive for murder, his defence barrister has told the trial jury.

Emile Cilliers, of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps, is accused at Winchester Crown Court of two counts of attempting to murder Victoria Cilliers while having two affairs.

Elizabeth Marsh QC, defending, told the jury of nine women and three men that the prosecution considered Cilliers as a "vile human being" and treated him with "scorn, sarcasm and theatricality" but she told the jurors they had to remember he was "innocent until they were sure he was guilty".

She said: "Mr Cilliers is an easy target, no Prince Charming, if anything the pantomime villain, unfaithful, lying to each of the women in his life, as one assumes needs must if you are conducting any sort of affair.

"If it's the path you choose to tackle, honesty is not something that is possible once an affair has been embarked upon.

"He is something of a penniless scoundrel which is how he might be characterised - if only Victoria Cilliers had been tied to the train tracks with Mr Cilliers twirling his moustache.

"But we are not there, it's fantasy land and we have to look at the evidence."

Ms Marsh said that his dishonesty during his affairs had been "driven by lust" but did not mean he was lying in his account of what happened to his wife.

She added: "Do not characterise lies to fan the flames of lust as someway a motive for a murder."

Ms Marsh said that the suggested motive that he expected to receive her estate and insurance payout to pay off his debts of £22,500 was "utterly rubbish".

She added that the couple had a pre-nuptial agreement which excluded the "financially incontinent" defendant from inheriting from his wife.

Ms Marsh added: "It wouldn't take Stephen Hawking to work out why you wouldn't give him an open cheque book."

She added: "If Victoria died, he wouldn't get a penny, not a brass farthing, nothing."

Ms Marsh suggested that although parachuting could be seen as a dangerous sport it was safer than "driving, cycling or being a pedestrian" but said that accidents do happen.

She described the famous parachute jump depicting the Queen and James Bond parachuting into the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in 2012.

She continued: "Within 12 months, the man who played Daniel Craig was dead, he had died in a wingsuit stunt, an accident occurred. It happens however experienced you are."

Victoria Cilliers, a highly-experienced parachuting instructor, suffered near-fatal injuries when she took part in a jump at the Army Parachute Association at Netheravon, Wiltshire, on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015.

Cilliers, 37, is accused of sabotaging her main and reserve parachute and a few days earlier tampering with a gas valve at the family home in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

The defendant denies two counts of attempted murder and one of criminal damage recklessly endangering life.

The trial continues.