Athens, Greece – Court of Appeal in Athens has upheld the life imprisonment sentence for Babis Anagnostopoulos, the Greek helicopter pilot convicted for murdering his 19-year-old British wife, Caroline Crouch. This verdict reinforces the gravity of the crime and the pursuit of justice for the victim.
Caroline Crouch’s tragic death, which occurred in May 2021, shocked the nation and drew widespread attention due to the elaborate cover-up attempt by Anagnostopoulos, who initially tried to shift blame onto fictitious foreign robbers. The court’s decision to maintain the life sentence reflects the severity of his actions.
In addition to the life imprisonment, Anagnostopoulos has also been sentenced to 11.5 years in prison and fined 21,000 euros for two additional offenses. One pertains to the gruesome act of strangling his wife’s puppy, adding another layer of cruelty to the case. The second offense relates to obstruction of justice, highlighting the deliberate efforts made by the perpetrator to evade responsibility for his heinous crime.
Throughout the legal proceedings, Anagnostopoulos’s defense team argued for a reduction in the sentence, citing mitigating circumstances. However, the prosecutor overseeing the case firmly rejected this plea. Instead, the prosecutor characterized the murder of Caroline Crouch as one of the most heinous crimes witnessed in the past decades, emphasizing the severity of the offense.
The chilling details of the murder revealed that Anagnostopoulos committed the crime at their residence in the east Attica suburb of Glyka Nera, with the couple’s infant daughter present. The cold-blooded nature of the act and the subsequent attempt to fabricate a false narrative were central elements in the prosecution’s case.
