Stephen Hilder
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Stephen Hilder
The death of Stephen Hilder, aged 20, occurred on 4 July 2003 at Hibaldstow Airfield, England, in an incident in which Hilder fell to his death when, during a 3-person team skydive, both his main and reserve parachutes failed. The investigation into the death, "unique in British crime history", revealed expert-level tampering with both canopies, but failed to determine whether the incident was murder or suicide. Background Stephen Paul Hilder was born on 12 December 1982 in Hereford and attended the Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School. He was later an officer cadet at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in Shrivenham, Wiltshire, England. A keen parachutist, he died around 2:45 pm on Friday, 4 July 2003, at Hibaldstow Airfield, when both his main and reserve parachutes failed to operate correctly. He had been participating in a week-long British Collegiate Parachute Association championship skydiving competition with his "Black Rain" teammates and fellow officer cadets, ...
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Hereford
Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With a population of 61,900 in 2024, it is the largest settlement in Herefordshire. An early town charter from 1189, granted by Richard I of England, describes it as "Hereford in Wales". Hereford has been recognised as a city since time immemorial, with the status being reconfirmed in October 2000. Hereford has been a civil parish since 2000. Products from Hereford include cider, beer, leather goods, nickel alloys, poultry, chemicals and sausage rolls, as well as the Hereford breed of cattle. Toponymy The Herefordshire edition of Cambridge County Geographies states "a Welsh derivation of Hereford is more probable than a Saxon one", but the name "Hereford" is also said to come from the Anglo-Saxon "''here''", an army or formation of s ...
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The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its parent company, National World, also publishes the ''Edinburgh Evening News''. It had an audited print circulation of 8,762 for July to December 2022. Its website, Scotsman.com, had an average of 138,000 unique visitors a day as of 2017. The title celebrated its bicentenary on 25 January 2017. History ''The Scotsman'' was conceived in 1816 and first launched on 25 January 1817 as a liberal weekly newspaper by lawyer William Ritchie (Newspaper Editor), William Ritchie and customs official Charles Maclaren in response to the "unblushing subservience" of competing newspapers to the Edinburgh establishment. These two plus John Ramsay McCulloch were co-founders of the venture. The paper was pledged to "impartiality, firm ...
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ITV Studios
ITV Studios Limited is a British multinational television media company owned by British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadcasters, and is based in 12 countries across 60 production labels, with local production offices in the UK, the US, Belgium, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Israel, France, Spain, and Scandinavia. About ITV Studios not only makes programmes primarily for its parent company ITV plc, but also for other networks such as the BBC and Channel 4. It was formed from a gradual amalgamation of the production divisions of all ITV plc owned 'Channel 3' licensees which occurred from 1994 to 2004, and for a number of years thereafter following the creation of ITV plc. The division is also responsible for ITV's production facilities The London Studios, 3SixtyMedia (based at ITV Granada, and co-owned with BBC Studioworks), and location hire company ProVisio ...
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Victoria Cilliers
Victoria Cilliers is a skydiver, notable for having survived a murder attempt in 2015, when her husband interfered with both her main and reserve parachutes. Early life and marriage Victoria lives in Wiltshire, England, and is a physiotherapist for the Ministry of Defence. Victoria's ex-husband Emile Cilliers was born in South Africa in 1980 and moved to the UK in the early 2000s. He has four children from previous relationships. He met Victoria in 2009, and they have two children. Their relationship deteriorated before his 2015 attempt on her life. She became a successful parachutist and instructor, with 2,654 jumps. Murder attempt During a parachute jump on Easter Sunday 2015, both her main and reserve parachutes failed to open. She fell to the ground. She survived the fall despite life-threatening injuries because she landed on a soft, newly ploughed field. It was the second attempt on her life in less than a week. Emile Cilliers was convicted of her attempted murder in May ...
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Netheravon Airfield
Netheravon Airfield is a Ministry of Defence grass strip airfield on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire, England. Established in 1913 by the Royal Flying Corps, it became RAF Netheravon from 1918 until 1963, then AAC Netheravon ( Army Air Corps) until 2012. Buildings from 1913 and 1914 survive on part of the site. The site forms part of the Tidworth, Netheravon and Bulford (TidNBul) Garrison. Location The airfield lies on Salisbury Plain, mostly in Fittleton parish, extending south into Figheldean. It is close to Netheravon village and about north of the town of Amesbury. Its buildings are on two sites. Technical buildings, including as the control tower and hangars, are immediately southwest of the runways. About further southwest, towards Netheravon, is Airfield Camp (also known as Lower Camp) which has offices, a training school (the Airmen's Institute), an Officers' Mess and barracks. The Ministry of Defence land which surrounds the site is part of the Salisbury Plain Train ...
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Opglabbeek
Opglabbeek (; ) is a village, former municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. In 2018, Opglabbeek had a total population of 10,332. The total area is 24.98 km2. The municipality consisted of the following communities: Opglabbeek proper, Nieuwe Kempen, and Louwel. Effective 1 January 2019, Opglabbeek and Meeuwen-Gruitrode were merged into the new municipality of Oudsbergen Oudsbergen (; ) is a municipality in the Belgian province of Limburg that arose on 1 January 2019 from the merging of the municipalities of Opglabbeek and Meeuwen-Gruitrode. The merged municipality has an area of 116.24 km2 and a population .... References External links * Official website Populated places in Limburg (Belgium) Oudsbergen Former municipalities of Limburg (Belgium) {{LimburgBE-geo-stub ...
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Parachute Murder
The Parachute Murder is the name the Belgian media gave to the crime that led to a 2010 Belgian love triangle skydiving murder trial. The defendant, elementary school teacher and amateur skydiver Els "Babs" Clottemans, was found guilty of murder by sabotaging the parachutes of another woman, fellow skydiver Els Van Doren, because Van Doren was a rival for the love of Marcel Somers, also a skydiver. Victim Els Van Doren was a 38-year-old mother of two, married to an Antwerp jeweller. Van Doren was an experienced skydiver who had performed 2,300 jumps prior to her death. Van Doren and Els Clottemans, a 26-year-old school teacher, were friends. Since they both had the same first name, Van Doren at one point suggested that everyone in the skydiving club call her younger friend "Babs" so there would be less confusion. One week before the murder, Van Doren spent the night with Marcel Somers in his bed at his house, along with Clottemans, who slept on the floor on a mattress downst ...
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Drop Zone
A drop zone (DZ) is a place where parachutists or parachuted supplies land. It can be an area targeted for landing by paratroopers and airborne forces, or a base from which recreational parachutists and skydivers take off in aircraft and land under parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...s. In the latter case, it is often beside a small airport, frequently sharing the facility with other general aviation. At recreational drop zones, an area is generally set side for Parachute landing fall, parachute landings. Personnel at the site may include a drop zone operator or owner (DZO), manifestors (who maintain the flight manifest documents defining who flies and when), pilots, instructors or coaches, camera operators, parachute packers and riggers, and other genera ...
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North Lincolnshire
North Lincolnshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Lincolnshire, England. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 Census, it had a population of 167,446. The administrative centre and largest settlement is Scunthorpe, and the borough also includes the towns of Brigg, Broughton, Lincolnshire, Broughton, Haxey, Crowle, Lincolnshire, Crowle, Epworth, Lincolnshire, Epworth, Bottesford, Lincolnshire, Bottesford, Winterton, Lincolnshire, Winterton, Kirton in Lindsey and Barton-upon-Humber. North Lincolnshire is part of the Yorkshire and the Humber region. The borough is mostly rural in character aside from near the town of Scunthorpe and near the Port of Immingham where most of the nearby villages and towns form part of the wider urban areas. North Lincolnshire was formed following the abolition of Humberside County Council in 1996, when four unitary authorities replaced it, North Lincolnshire and ...
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The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia and claims to be the most widely read masthead in the country. It is considered a newspaper of record for Australia. The newspaper is published in Compact (newspaper), compact print form from Monday to Saturday as ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' and on Sunday as its sister newspaper, ''The Sun-Herald'' and digitally as an Website, online site and Mobile app, app, seven days a week. The print edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' is available for purchase from many retail outlets throughout the Sydney metropolitan area, most parts of regional New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South East Queensland. Overview ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' publishes a variety of supplements, including ...
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Open Verdict
The open verdict is an option open to a coroner's jury at an inquest in the legal system of England and Wales. The verdict means the jury confirms the death is suspicious, but is unable to reach any other verdicts open to them. Mortality studies consider it likely that the majority of open verdicts are recorded in cases of suicide where the intent of the deceased could not be proved, although the verdict is recorded in many other circumstances. Meaning Two lord chief justices have cautioned an open verdict does not mean the jury has failed to do their duty of explaining the cause of death, but that in some cases, there is genuine doubt about the cause of death. However, the uncertainty explicit in the verdict has led many to regard it as an unsatisfactory one.See, for example Jon J. Nordby PhD, ''Dead Reckoning: The Art of Forensic Detection'', CRC Press, 1999, p. 243: "An open verdict satisfies no one." Current legal guidance is to avoid open verdicts if possible: Standard o ...
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Coroner
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death. The official may also investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's jurisdiction. In medieval times, English coroners were Crown officials who held financial powers and conducted some judicial investigations in order to counterbalance the power of sheriffs or bailiffs. Depending on the jurisdiction, the coroner may adjudge the cause of death personally, or may act as the presiding officer of a special court (a " coroner's jury"). The term ''coroner'' derives from the same source as the word '' crown''. Duties and functions Responsibilities of the coroner may include overseeing the investigation and certification of deaths related to mass disasters that occur within the coroner's jurisdiction. A coroner's office typically maintains death records of those who have died within the coroner's juri ...
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