London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Babis Anagnostopoulos: how a murderer fooled the world for months

Babis Anagnostopoulos: how a murderer fooled the world for months

The husband of Caroline Crouch tugged at heartstrings and implicated innocent foreigners while playing the part of grieving widower
Babis Anagnostopoulos: clever; photogenic; charistmatic; successful – all traits that perhaps allowed him to think he could fool the world. On Monday the game was up.

Justice caught up with the helicopter pilot who finally admitted it was he who had suffocated his British wife, Caroline Crouch, just over a year ago. And justice was unsparing. At the end of a dramatic trial, whose every twist and turn had gripped Greece, a mixed court of jurors and judges unanimously agreed that the 34-year-old should receive the toughest penalty possible under Greek law: a life sentence for the premeditated murder of his partner; a jail term of 11 years and six months for the brutal killing of the family’s pet dog; and a fine of €21,000.

Anagnostopoulos, who for almost six weeks had sought to pin the murder in the couple’s dream Athenian home on a gang of ruthless foreign thieves, will likely remain behind bars for several decades. After sentencing was passed, even his lawyer appeared to justify the judgment, saying the verdict was “expected”.

But in truth, the story of Crouch’s death has made waves precisely because it confounded expectation. At barely 20, the young mother’s tragic end struck a chord at a time when the Mediterranean nation has also been hit by a wave of femicides.

When the UK-trained pilot emerged dishevelled and distraught from the very building in suburban Athens where Caroline had taken her last breath – telling reporters he hoped no family would endure the same fate that his had been forced to bear – there was no one in Greece, or abroad, who did not sympathise.

Against a backdrop of rising crime in the capital’s suburbs, a visibly shocked civil protection minister announced a €300,000 bounty to help unearth the culprits.

As the weeks passed, with no evident breakthroughs, the story intensified – along with the public’s interest. In the role of grieving widow, Anagnostopoulos pandered to Greek fears: he wasn’t sure where the thieves were from, but he was convinced they were foreigners. Potential suspects were pulled out of police line-ups with the aviator deliberately suggesting Georgians or Albanians were behind the murder.

Other props would be used to maintain the fiction that he was a loving family man who had fallen victim to heinous crime. Attending Crouch’s funeral, he mourned by the side of her grave, clutching the couple’s baby daughter, Lydia, for more than four hours.

Weeks later, when it became clear that the doting father had in fact been the perpetrator who had placed the 11-month-old child next to her dead mother’s body, the backlash was instant. Following his shock confession, sympathy turned into shock and then revulsion.

Across the country, Greeks felt hoodwinked, not only by Anagnostopoulos’ lies and hypocrisy, but by the knowledge that, like the police, they had been fooled by a consummate actor who had played on their deepest fears.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×