Caroline Crouch’s husband found guilty of murdering Brit mum in front of their baby & hanging dog to fake break-in
CAROLINE Crouch's husband has been found guilty of murdering the Brit mum in front of their baby and faking a botched break-in.
Babis Anagnostopoulos, 34, was jailed for life for suffocating his 20-year-old wife to death at their home in Greece in May last year before cruelly killing her beloved dog Roxy.
The Greek helicopter pilot was convicted of premeditated murder by three full-time judges and four jurors at the Athens Mixed Jury Court.
He was also found guilty of animal abuse and two counts of perverting the course of justice after his elaborate ruse was rumbled.
Anagnostopoulos sickening plot to kill his young wife initially fooled her family and cops.
The panel found he had intricately planned the murder in the hours beforehand and delivered the damning verdict in just an hour.
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The heartless 34-year-old remained expressionless as the verdict was read out.
"He didn't flinch," one witness told Sun Online.
As well as being jailed for life, he was also handed and 11 year sentence for killing the dog and fined 21,000 Euros.
The mixed court of jurors and judges overwhelmingly rejected Anagnostopoulos' attempt to make the murder look like a "crime of passion", saying it was clear it was premeditated and should be punished as such.
The court, which immediately recessed to discuss the penalty the pilot will receive, is expected to put him behind bars for at least 20 years.
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They heard how Caroline was horrifically tortured and suffocated with a pillow in front of her 11-month-old as she slept at the couple's house in an upmarket Athens suburb.
The disgraced dad then hung the family dog by his leash from a banister in an attempt to stage his fictional crime scene.
Police found Caroline's lifeless body on a bed next to her crying daughter Lydia - while evil Anagnostopoulos had handcuffed himself to the floor.
From the moment officers peeled the duct tape from his eyes and mouth, he began spewing a twisted tale to save his own skin.
The killer claimed his family had been targeted by an Albanian gang and pretended he didn't know his wife was dead - even poking her body and asking: "Honey are you okay?"
In a desperate bid to fool authorities, he led them on a wild goose chase with an outrageous web of lies by inventing fake suspects.
But his sick cover-up was rumbled after police pulled together a stack of digital evidence that disrupted his timeline of the alleged botched robbery.
They found that Anagnostopoulos had in fact been active during the time he was supposedly tied up and Caroline's heart had stopped beating hours before he claimed the gang had broke in.
Detectives also revealed the security camera had been tampered with earlier than the pilot claimed, the couple had been arguing on that fateful night, and Caroline had tried to book a hotel to flee.
But the 34-year-old was still desperate to fool the court throughout the harrowing six-day trial which has entranced the world.
WEB OF DECEIT
During his debut in the dock, he insisted that everything happened "in the heat of the moment" and claimed he "still loves his wife."
He had spent months preparing for court, signalling that he was planning to pin the blame on Caroline's "narcissistic aggressive behaviour."
The pair's neighbour Angeliki Gerolymatou described the 34-year-old as a possessive husband who had isolated his young wife and often left her alone for hours.
She said: "Caroline was left in the house, waiting for her husband to come so they could go and do the shopping.
"She didn't do anything. Quite a few times she told me she didn't have any money on her."
The couple's counsellor Eleni Mylonopoulou branded the murderous husband a "narcissist" and "passive aggressive".
But the mixed court saw through his pack of lies and heard how he horrifically "tortured" Caroline in front of their child.
It appears the presentation of a perfect family life before Caroline's murder was merely smoke and mirrors - as he had been arguing with his spouse just hours before he smothered her to death.
"Controlling" Anagnostopoulos killed her in a fit of rage after the couple became embroiled in a heated argument regarding their baby daughter.
Prosecutors said he held his hand over the 20-year-old's mouth to stifle her cries, before suffocating her with a pillow.
Caroline struggled for five minutes before tragically taking her last breath.
'TOP CLASS ACTOR'
In another awful move to make "the crime more credible" he placed their 11-month-old Lydia next to her dead mother.
After killing the family dog, he tied himself up and called the police - saying he somehow managed to dial the number with his nose.
But before Anagnostopoulos confessed to his crime, he kept up his charade for 37 days and played the role of the grieving husband.
He sobbed to reporters, visited his wife's grave with their daughter, and even comforted Caroline's heartbroken parents.
But police became suspicious when his story began to fall apart during an eight-hour interrogation before he was finally arrested on June 17.
Cops described him as a "top-class actor" after staging the detailed crime scene and keeping up his web of lies for over a month.
Investigators found Anagnostopoulos had an app on his phone to measure his steps that showed repeated movement during the time he claimed to be bound by the raiders.
The pilot had earlier said he lost consciousness for up to 30 minutes due to the constriction of the tape tied around his neck.
But data also appeared to show he was active on his mobile during the time he was allegedly tied up.
The next clue came from Caroline's biometric watch that she wore on her wrist, which recorded her pulse rate.
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It showed that the 20-year-old's heart had stopped beating hours before the time her husband claimed she must have been murdered, buying him time to stage the robbery.
Anagnostopoulos faces life imprisonment for the murder of Caroline, which is 16 years in Greece plus a maximum ten years for killing Roxy and a combined six years for the other two offences.
