Accompanied by a strong police force and wearing a bullet-proof vest, 32-year-old Babis Anagnostopoulos arrived at the Court in Athens for his deposition regarding the murder of his wife Caroline Crouch. Upon the arrival of the helicopter pilot at the court, a crowd of people started to swear at him, calling him “monster” and “beast” and shouting “You should rot in jail, motherf***er!”
His deposition is expected to start at 12 noon, two hours later than originally scheduled, for his lawyer to study the new police evidence such as the removed home surveillance camera.
According to state broadcaster ERT, he will insist that he killed Caroline in the “heat of an argument moment.” However, neither the killing of the dog nor the removal of the camera two hours earlier sustain this version.
The man has confessed that his original version of the burglary was staged and that he asphyxiated to death his 20-year-old wife and killed the family dog to ‘demonstrate burglar’s brutality.” He claimed that that he killed her during an argument, however, forensic evidence following analysis of Caroline’s smartwatch that was recording her heart pulse showed that the young woman was sleeping when he attacked and killed her.
Next to the burglary, the murderer has tabled several versions about his motive including the one that Caroline did not take care of the child or that she wanted to leave him.
Some media suggest that “Crouch may have threatened Anagnostopoulos with divulging knowledge of certain shady dealings he had been involved in.”
The deposition is expected to last several hours. He is said to have said that he wants to go to jail and then “deal with the upbringing of his child.”
Meanwhile, one of his two lawyers resigned from the case on Tuesday.
“I no longer want to be involved with the defense of this case, in any respect, for personal reasons,” Vassilis Spyrou said in a public resignation letter hours before the suspect was due to testify to an investigating magistrate.
ERT TV reported that it was his client who fired him.
Spyrou was dealing with the part of the case referring to the custody of the 11-month-old daughter of the couple.
Decision about the child’s custody was scheduled to be taken today, however, it may be delayed due to lawyer’s resignation.
According to media, both grandparents seem to have agreed to shared custody of the toddler that Anagnostopoulos placed on her dead mother’s body, most likely to have her quiet so that he can stage the burglary scene.
Meanwhile, the victim’s family has hired two lawyers who stated representation at the Civil Action against Babis Anagnostopoulos.
He is charged with two felonies – murder of Caroline, dog killing – and two misdemeanor – lying to police, staging fake scene, blaming others –
Let’s hope justice prevails. This man is very, very bad and must be punished accordingly otherwise this will set a precedent in an already misogenistic society.