A British woman murdered by her husband in Greece was scared of him and had been looking for somewhere else to live months before he killed her, her counsellor has revealed.
Caroline Crouch was suffocated with a pillow by her husband Charalambos Anagnostopoulos, a Greek pilot, in May.
Anagnostopoulos, known as Babis, initially told investigators that his wife had been killed during a violent home invasion in which armed burglars had tied him and Caroline up.
He later confessed to killing his 20-year-old wife in a fit of rage after she ordered him out of the house and demanded a divorce.
The couple’s one-year-old daughter Lydia was in the home at the time of the killing, as was the family puppy Roxy, which Anagnostopoulos, 33, admitted to smothering and stringing up from the stairwell of the apartment building.
Speaking to local media at the weekend, a lawyer for Eleni Mylonopoulou – described in local media as ‘the couple’s mental health counsellor’ – said Caroline had been looking for an apartment in central Athens in order to leave her husband.
She wanted to leave in November and find a home near a cooking school she planned to attend, tanea.gr reported.
Caroline had told her counsellor that she was very afraid of Anagnostopoulos and sought advice on how to improve her situation, lawyer Stamatia Markou said.
‘Caroline had revealed from the first moment to my client the fears for her husband,’ the lawyer said.
A British woman murdered by her husband in Greece was scared of him and had been looking for somewhere else to live months before he killed her, her counsellor has revealed. Caroline Crouch (left) was suffocated with a pillow by her husband Charalambos Anagnostopoulos (right), a Greek pilot, in May
Anagnostopoulos, known as Babis, initially told investigators that his wife had been killed during a violent home invasion where armed burglars had tied him and Caroline up. Pictured: The couple with one-year-old daughter Lydia
Anagnostopoulos later confessed to killing 20-year-old Caroline in a fit of rage after she had ordered him out of the house and demanded a divorce
‘The fear that Caroline felt in her sessions was pervasive,’ she said, adding that Caroline’s counsellor would ensure the door was closed properly so that her husband could not hear what was discussed in their sessions.
Markou went on to say that the couple had ‘many problems’ and that ‘there had been no relationship between them, not even sexual, in recent months.’
Mylonopoulou said she had urged Caroline to speak to her mother but Caroline had refused, saying she did not want to disappoint her.
The counsellor said that Caroline realised she had made the wrong choice in marrying Anagnostopoulos and was looking for a way out of the relationship.
‘She was trying to find ways to get out of the situation,’ Markou said.
Markou also accused Anagnostopoulos of attempting to ‘blackmail’ the counsellor, saying without elaborating that Mylonopoulou was ‘indirectly blackmailed by the confessed perpetrator.’
‘He went and found her up close. He had the courage! My client made sure she was not alone, precisely because she was afraid of him,’ Markou said.
Mylonopoulou also reportedly received a message from Caroline asking to end the counselling sessions. Markou claimed it was not unlikely that this message had actually been sent by Anagnostopoulos.
The revelations from Caroline’s counsellor came as the juvenile prosecutor’s office prepared to issue a decision on Monday on the temporary custody of baby Lydia.
The child is currently being looked after by the parents of Anagnostopoulos, and was pictured on Greek TV yesterday being cradled in the arms of his mother, Georgia Anagnostopoulos.
The teacher and her husband, who live in the Greek capital, are happy to share their granddaughter’s upbringing with her maternal grandparents.
Speaking to local media at the weekend, Stamatia Markou, a lawyer for Eleni Mylonopoulou – described in local media as ‘the couple’s mental health counsellor’ – said Caroline had been looking for an apartment in central Athens in order to leave her husband
The revelations from Caroline’s counsellor came as the juvenile prosecutor’s office prepared to issue a decision on the temporary custody of Caroline and Anagnostopoulos’ daughter Lydia. Pictured: Anagnostopoulos’ mother with Lydia
But Caroline’s parents, David and Susan, who live on the island of Alonissos, want sole custody of the baby.
Caroline’s father, David Crouch, 78, a retired gas executive who was born in Liverpool, spoke movingly about ‘my wonderful daughter’ in an interview with the Mail this week.
Anagnostopoulos’ parents have suggested that Lydia live with them in Athens from October to April every year and spend the rest of the time with her mother’s family in Alonissos.
Protothema.gr reported that social workers appointed by the prosecution have visited both families and submitted reports to the prosecutors handling the case.
The decision, due today, will be valid for 30 days, during which time either set of grandparents can appeal.
In the application submitted to the prosecutor’s office, Anagnostopoulos’ family states: ‘Under the weight of the tragic events, we believe that the balanced contact and development of our granddaughter Lydia with both families, both paternal and maternal, and in fact with a time distribution that is beneficial and necessary for the protection of balanced and smooth growth ‘.
After suffocating Caroline as she slept, Anagnostopoulos then smothered puppy Roxy (pictured) and hanged the pup’s lifeless body on the banister of their first floor flat in Athens
The family said sharing custody of Lydia would ensure the child maintains a close relationship with both families and help mitigate the effects of the tragic loss of her mother.
On Saturday, Anagnostopoulos was pictured from behind barbed wire as he stretched his legs in the exercise yard of the notorious Korydallos prison.
The prison is located on the outskirts of Athens and is Greece‘s main maximum-security facility.
Conditions inside the prison are so bad that the Greek government has vowed to shut it down but Anagnostopoulos is being housed in its ‘VIP’ wing, enjoying a host of luxuries that have left other inmates and prison wardens fuming at the ‘five-star’ treatment he is receiving.
Photographs were also published in the Greek media on Saturday showing the inside of Anagnostopoulos’s cell, which comes with its own shower, toilet, set of furniture, large window, which allows in plenty of light, and a television.
The photos came amid reports that Anagnostopoulos had asked Caroline’s grieving parents to pay £3,500 – or about 4,000 Euros – for her coffin.
Recounting the alleged request, Thanassis Haramanis, the lawyer for Caroline’s family told The Sun: ‘This man has no shame.
Anagnostopoulos was pictured from behind barbed wire in the exercise yard of the notorious Korydallos prison, which is Greece’s main maximum-security facility
Photos of Anagnostopoulos in jail amid reports that he had asked Caroline’s grieving parents to pay £3,500 – or about 4,000 Euros – for her coffin. Pictured: Caroline’s coffin
‘First he killed Caroline, then he asked her parents for money to pay for her coffin and to fly her body from Athens for the funeral.
‘They gave him 4,000 euros.
‘He paid nothing.’
A source also told the Sun Caroline’s family had lent her and Anagnostopoulos more than £43,000 for a plot of land. The newspaper reports that only his name is on the deeds.
On May 11, Anagnostopoulos staged a break-in at their villa in the affluent suburb of Glyka Nera in an elaborate plot to cover his tracks — accusing a gang of merciless foreign burglars of tying him up, killing Caroline in front of their baby daughter, Lydia, and stringing up their puppy, Roxy, from the stairwell.
Following his arrest last week, he admitted to having smothered his wife with a pillow because, he told police, she had threatened to leave him and take one-year-old Lydia with her.
Data from Caroline’s smartwatch showed she was in an ‘extreme state of mental or physical stress for six minutes’, and revealed that she did not die at the time Anagnostopoulos had originally claimed.
In other words, it could have taken six minutes for her to die.
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