Caroline Crouch: Greek husband confesses to murdering British wife
18 June 2021, 07:27 | Updated: 18 June 2021, 10:57
A Greek man has confessed to killing his British wife in Athens after claiming she'd been murdered by burglars.
Babis Anagnostopolous told police he and 20-year-old Caroline Crouch had been tied up and attacked by the robbers but official sources say his smartwatch data showed him moving around the house after the murder.
Mrs Crouch, 20, a British national who grew up in Greece, was found murdered in a bedroom on 11 May after her husband reported the supposed incident to the police.
READ MORE: Police investigating murder of British mother in Greece arrest man on Bulgarian border
Mr Anagnostopoulos, a 33-year-old helicopter pilot and flight instructor, made statements just hours after the killing, telling reporters they had been tied up by robbers who broke into their home.
The couple's infant daughter was at home at the time of Ms Crouch's death but was not harmed.
Police had issued a 300,000-euro (£262,000) reward for information on the crime.
Speaking to broadcasters outside their home last week, Mr Anagnostopoulos said: "I wish no-one ever goes through what we went through last night. It was a nightmare.
"We begged the thieves not to harm us. We told them where the money was and asked them to leave us alone. The police will catch them."
But on Thursday, authorities said new evidence had come to light and that the husband had been summoned for questioning after attending a memorial service on the Aegean Sea island of Alonissos, where Ms Crouch grew up.
He was transported to Athens by helicopter from the nearby island of Skiathos.
The day before Mr Anagnostopoulos' detainment, officers arrested a man from Georgia after DNA analysis reportedly linked him to a burglary in Pikermi, which saw an elderly couple tied up while raiders ransacked their home.
Theodoros Chronopoulos, a spokesman for Greek police, previously labelled the attack as a "heinous crime, committed with extreme ferocity".
He added: "Such barbarism is rare for Greece."
Earlier this week, the minister responsible for public order, Michalis Chrisochoidis, described the killing as "particularly heinous".
He added: "One rarely encounters such barbarity in Greece, in Greek society, even among criminals."
