Husband of Brit mum tortured to death by burglars tells how he ‘begged’ for their lives as he returns to scene
THE husband of Brit mum tortured to death by burglars told cops they begged for their lives as she screamed for help.
Heartbreaking video has shown Charalambos Anagnostopoulos, 32, returning to the Athens house where a group of armed men murdered his 20-year-old wife Caroline Crouch.
The sadistic thieves killed the young mum while forcing her to reveal where £30,000-worth of cash and jewellery was kept at her home in Athens.
Charalambos, a helicopter pilot, survived after he was tied to a chair and blind-folded with duct tape at the home in the Glyka Nera suburb of the city.
The robbers reportedly held a gun to the 11-month-old girl's head in a sickening bid to get the mum to reveal where the money was kept.
Charalambos was seen returning back to his home accompanied by police officers after speaking to detectives investigating the sickening murder,
Speaking to reporters he said what had happened was "indescribable" adding: “We pleaded with them we told them where the money was.”
He added: “I hope what happened to me and my family and my wife’s family never happens again. The police know how to do their job and they will find them."
The Greek authorities have now offered a massive €300,000 reward for capture of the killers.
Caroline was tied to the bed using a t-shirt and was strangled to death by the depraved gang to stop her screaming for her baby's safety.
Some conflicting reports say husband Charalambos was found sleeping in another room by the killers.
Once the armed men fled, Charalambos managed to free himself to find his baby daughter crying beside the lifeless body of her mother, reports say.
An investigator said: "The woman appears to have been strangled by the robbers in their bid to locate jewellery and cash the couple may have had in their home.
He said: "It was shortly after five. I saw three hooded men. One was tall. They shouted and threatened in broken Greek.
"They tied me to a chair and then went on my wife.";
The same report quotes the pilot as telling police he was sleeping downstairs during the break-in
“When I managed to break free, I rushed upstairs to the attic to find my wife on the floor facing down, and the baby next to her wailing,” he reportedly told cops.
Charalambos called the police around 6am.
The Greek government has issued a £258,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the men, reports The Dawn.
Police said it appears that the robbers were experienced and likely watched the couple for some time before the raid.
The gangsters reportedly broke into the home through a window in the basement before killing the family dog in the first floor of the property.
When they fled the home, they left the dead dog hanging from a fence outside the house.
Officers are trawling through CCTV to see how the gang got away and whether they were in the area before the raid.
Police spokesman Theodoros Chronopoulos described the murder as a "heinous crime, committed with extreme ferocity."
He added: "We’ve seen several other ugly murders throughout the years. But this was extremely brutal and violent.”
The murdered woman was born in Greece but had a British passport, the police said.
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Mrs Crouch was a student at the University of Piraeus and on her husband’s Instagram account the couple are pictured smiling with their baby.
Greeks are used to gangland killings but the strangling of the woman in front of her child has led to shock in the country.