SICK AND TWISTED
Caroline Crouch’s deluded husband wants to raise baby daughter while in prison & vows to take custody after his sentence
CAROLINE Crouch’s husband wants to raise their baby while in jail for killing her.
Deluded Babis Anagnostopoulos, 33, has even vowed to take custody of 11-month-old Lydia when he's free from prison.
🔵 Read our Caroline Crouch live blog for the very latest updates...
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Little Lydia is currently being cared for by the Babis' parents after he confessed to brutally killing Caroline and faking a burglary in a bid to cover up the crime.
Lydia was found by police lying next to Caroline’s lifeless body the morning her father strangled her mother.
Shameless Anagnostopoulos has said publicly that he committed the crime for in a bid to keep custody of his daughter and has hinted that her mother was unfit to look after her.
He has said he wants custody of Lydia and even told cops he killed Caroline so he could care for her.
According he is said to have told murder cops questioning him: "Let’s get this over with. Let me serve my time so that I can focus on raising my child.”
After appearing in court to face murder charges Anagnostopoulos said "I wish I could go back in time but sadly I can't" after he tried to blame his wife for her murder.
He is now behind bars in a hellhole maximum security prison.
But despite facing murder charges he requested not be kept in custody claiming that "there is no evidence of my guilt for the crimes I am accused of", reports .
What we know:
- Five clues gave away Anagnostopoulos and blew apart his story
- Haunting footage shows him cradling daughter before he killed Caroline
- Caroline's wrote coded diaries recording abuse at hands of her husband
- He staged an elaborate fake crime scene in bid to evade justice
- Caroline died an "agonising" death, a coroner's report has said
Caroline’s mum Susan Dela Cuesta and her dad David Crouch have begun moves to obtain custody of their granddaughter and to raise her in their home on the island of Alonissos, their lawyer has revealed.
They have vowed "memories of her mother will live forever".
“We believe that the family environment on Alonissos is absolutely suitable at least for the first years of the child’s upbringing,” lawyer Thanasis Harmanis told the ‘Good Morning Greece’ TV show.
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Taking care of Lydia would be a form of consolation for the family, he said and recalled what Susan told him about Anagnostopoulos.
“I can tell you what word-for-word, what the mother said to me ‘he took my child from me, if I lose my grandchild it will be the last shot for me’.”
Harmanis reiterated that the two grandmothers had “good relations” but the case is being examined by social workers.
This week, twisted Anagnostopoulos showed no emotion as he was led into court -past a crowd shouting "rot in prison", while handcuffed and wearing a bullet proof vest - to face murder charges.
Susan was too distraught to make the journey from Alonissos, the Greek island where Caroline was raised.
Just before his arrest, the helicopter pilot was filmed hugging her at Caroline's memorial service on Alonissos as he kept up his charade that his wife had been killed by sadistic robbers.
Hamanis said she has been traumatised after being hugged by Anagnostopoulos.
"She was embraced by the same hands that cut off the breath of her daughter … and then you can understand how painful and how tragic it is for a mother,” he said.
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In the aftermath of Anagnostopoulos' confession she said she didn't suspect her daughter's husband "for a second".
Anagnostopoulos was arrested by police on Thursday and admitted killing Caroline in a fit of rage.
Anagnostopoulos was escorted into the court complex by a squad of heavily armed police from the anti-terrorism unit.
The murder shocked Greece, and Anagnostopoulos initial account of what happened attracted an outpouring of sympathy from the nation.
But that has turned to widespread anger after he confessed to the crime after maintaining his fabricated story.
He has been charged with murdering Caroline and is facing a life sentence by smothering her after earlier disarming CCTV in the house.
Anagnostopoulos has also been charged with killing their dog as part of his attempt to cover up the crime, and also lying to police about the robbery.
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But he will claim the killing was not pre-meditated but instead he entered a "blurred" state of mind as a result of her being "verbally and physically aggressive towards him".
If he is somehow able to convince the court that happened, he could have his sentence cut to a maximum of 15 years.
But prosecutors will point to elaborate preparations he made in disarming security cameras and also making the house look like it was ransacked by robbers after he killed her, says
In their first interview since she was murdered, Caroline's parents have spoken of the "wonderful life" ahead of her that was brutally taken away.
After the killing on May 11, he claimed Caroline had been the victim of a gang who broke into their house in Glyka Nera, Athens.
He has been described as a "top-class actor" by police as he was pretending to be devastated by his wife's death.
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His story was blown apart when cops travelled to Alonnisos where a memorial service for Caroline took place.
They asked him to follow them in order to give new testimony about the murder probe and he then confessed during questioning.
It is reported he told cops he "panicked" when he realised he had killed Caroline after holding her down in bed as the couple were having a late night row.
But a chilling timeline has emerged that saw him stage an elaborate crime scene in a bid to trick cops into believing a gang of thugs had raided the home.
He reportedly told cops his "judgement became blurred" after rowing with Caroline in the hours leading up to her death.
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He said that he killed her in a fit of rage after she threatened to take their daughter away.
"I did not want to go to prison, because I wanted to raise my daughter," the 33-year-old was said to have told detectives.
At 4.01am, Caroline's biometric watch that she wore on her wrist recorded an intense pulse stimulation.
It was at that moment that Babis began attacking his wife, in front of their infant daughter, as Caroline struggled against the man 13 years her senior
The brave Brit then fought against him for a further ten minutes, until her watch recorded that her heart had stopped beating at 4.11am in the morning.
Babis then sickeningly placed their daughter next to her late mother in a bid to create a more convincing crime scene, police said.
He even admitted killing the family's puppy in order to make the crime scene more plausible.
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Caroline's distraught parents David and Susan have spoken of their hope for their 11-month-old granddaughter's future in their first interview since her death with the
READ MORE SUN STORIES
"Both Susan and I will spend the rest of our lives making sure that justice is done and ensuring that her little daughter Lydia is brought up with all the advantages that we can give her and that the memories of her mother live forever," David told the publication.
The 78-year-old proudly remembered the young mum who has been "cruelly taken away at the beginning of what was expected to be a wonderful life."
HOW YOU CAN GET HELP:
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
- Always keep your phone nearby.
- Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
- If you are in danger, call 999.
- Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
- Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – [email protected].
Women’s Aid provides a . from 10am to noon.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
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