MURDER RAP
Caroline Crouch’s husband arrives at court in bullet-proof vest surrounded by armed cops to face murder charge
TRAGIC Caroline Crouch's husband has arrived at court in a bulletproof vest after being charged with her murder.
Babis Anagnostopoulos sensationally admitted he smothered the 20-year-old to death after fresh evidence came to light.
🔵 Read our Caroline Crouch live blog for the very latest updates...
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The 33-year-old also killed the family puppy in a bid to make cops believe the bloodbath was the result of a burglary.
Babis was today pictured arriving at court in Athens flanked by armed cops.
The helicopter pilot looked emotionall drained as he made his way up some steps in a white protective vest and face mask.
Babis has been charged with intentional homicide and animal abuse and is also being charged with false accusations, according to .
He requested an extension of the deadline which was accepted and he is expected to present his defence on Tuesday.
According to his attorney, Vasilis Spyrou, Babis is "shocked by Caroline's death" but he believes his client is "relieved" everything has come to light, reports .
Meanwhile, Babis remains in custody at Hellenic Police Attica Headquarters.
Cops issued an arrest warrant because they feared he would attempt to flee the country as he is a pilot and financially stable.
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Police spent weeks searching for fictional Albanian criminals Babis claimed had broken into his home and strangled his wife to death.
"The culprit is her 33-year-old husband who has confessed to the act," the authorities said in a statement released at 9.36 PM local time yesterday.
Police have described him as a "top class actor" after staging the elaborate crime scene and keeping up with the sick charade as the grieving widower for over a month.
One of the police officers said he saw Anagnostopoulos acting "strangely" and took the child from his arms.
Cops claimed the family home was staged to look as though it had been ransacked, a common trademark of burglars.
According to Protothema, President of Police N / A Attica George Kalliakmanis said that one of his colleagues said she had a feeling that something wasn't right when they arrived at the crime scene - suspecting Anagnostopoulos from the start.
The disgraced helicopter pilot even drowned the family dog and hung its body from a stair banister to blame it on the burglars and strengthen his story, investigators said.
According to reports, Babis eventually broke down saying: "That night we had been arguing from early on.
"At some point she threw the child in her cot and she told me to get up and leave the house.
"She pushed me and punched me. My judgement became blurred, I strangled her and then I staged the robbery."
It comes as:
- Caroline's husband confessed to killing his wife after she "vowed to leave with their baby."
- He was described as a "top actor" as he hugged Caroline's mum at her funeral
- Timeline reveals Caroline fought her husband for ten minutes after her pulse stopped
- There were five clues that exposed the killer husband- from the fitness tracker to Caroline's pulse monitor
- An expert revealed the body language signs that exposed the killer's lies.
Police had apparently suspected Babis based on a barrage of new evidence, but in order for him not to "take fright" accepted his request to remain on the Greek island of Alonissos - where Caroline was buried in May - so that he could attend a memorial service in her honour on Wednesday.
Some of the new evidence came from the pilot's own mobile phone.
Police revealed an app had tracked his repeated steps from the attic to the basement of their home at the time he had claimed to be blindfolded and tied up by the alleged robbers, at around 5am on May 11.
It was also discovered the memory card in the security camera of the maisonette the couple shared had been removed at 1:20am - while he had claimed the thieves broke into the house several hours later.
Caroline's smartwatch recorded that her heart had stopped beating hours before the time Anagnostopoulos claimed she must have been murdered.
"He was a top-class actor...one of the last things he did on Alonissos was to hug Caroline's mother and tell her he was going to Athens to identify a suspect," a cop told the Sun Online.
Babis, who was 12 years older than his student wife, was detained in the cells at Greece's central police headquarters on Thursday night.
It had taken police 37 days to crack the case with investigators following up a host of dud inquiry lines based on the testimony Babis had given.
"It is going to be remembered as one of the great crime cases in recent decades," said one source.
CAROLINE CROUCH MURDER TIMELINE
12.35 am - Babis is seen on the living room CCTV camera with daughter Lydia, texting Caroline who is in the attic
1.20 am - Babis removes CCTV memory cards causing camera blackout and for the next two hours the couple exchange abusive text messages
4.00 am - Caroline's smartwatch shows intense pulse stimulation
4.11 am - Pulses detected on Caroline's smartwatch stop6am - Babis calls police reporting a robbery at the couple's home
Local media reported that among the evidence police had of the altercation was an attempt by Caroline to book herself into a hotel with their baby daughter on the night of the crime.
In a text message found on Caroline's phone, it had become apparent that the student had indeed threatened to leave the man she had first met as a teenager just hours before her own murder.
The pilot will be hauled before the courts today but is expected to request a 48-hour reprieve to prepare his defence with lawyers.
Babis had killed the Brit in front of his eleventh-month-old daughter who he had cradled in his arms during Caroline's funeral in Alonissos, where she had been raised after her parents moved to the island.
Local media reported that police sources claimed that Babis confessed after more than "eight hours of interrogation."
"The evidence available to the police was such that it could not refuse it," the sources said.
'Eight-hour interrogation'
"According to the first information, the 32-year-old pilot claims that his young wife told him when she was determined to take the child and leave him."
Greek police yesterday: "Investigation of the homicide of a 20-year-old native that took place on May 11, 2021, in Glyka Nera.
"The perpetrator is her 33-year-old husband, who confessed to his act."
Yesterday we revealed that Babis was taken by police to give new testimony after a breakthrough in the murder probe.
Police travelled by helicopter to a Greek island where Babis had been mourning with relatives to share the news.
According to local reports, police approached him discreetly following a memorial service and asked him to return to Athens with them.
In the police's first official statement in five weeks, they confirmed the 32-year-old pilot was being questioned at the homicide department of the capital's police headquarters.
"The husband of the victim in Nea Glyka is at the homicide department of police HQ, in order to be examined as the only eye witness following new data that has emerged from the inquiry," the statement said.
One cop described the development as "a possible game changer."
"The new finds will be presented to him," the source told Sun Online.
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, where you call 999 and press ‘55’ if you can’t safely speak.
- Always keep some money or a bank card on you, including change in case you need a pay phone or bus fare.
- If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to move towards an exit if you are inside the house and get your phone in case you need to call for help.
- Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other potential weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom.
Women’s Aid provides a - available every day from 10am-6pm or email [email protected]
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].
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
Local media said police were closer than ever before to tracking the killer although they did not elaborate.
Greek police have faced criticism for taking too long to make a breakthrough.
Suggestions of the pilot being among a list of potential suspects have so far always been rebuffed.
On June 4, it emerged that no DNA was found underneath Caroline's fingernails in another blow to the hung for the sadistic thieves who tortured the mum.
Meanwhile, calls also mounted on June 4 for the psychologist who says she had been treating Caroline to prove she is a certified practitioner.
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