The father of murdered Caroline Crouch has said he would oversee the “execution” of his daughter’s killer if the death penalty continues in Greece.
David Crouch, 79, spoke out before a self-pitying Papis Anagnostopoulos appealed against his 27-year prison sentence for killing Caroline, 19, in their Greek home in May 2021.
Will argues that he killed her because ‘he was worried she would hurt’ their then nine-month-old daughter Lydia and the prison sentence should be overturned because of the extenuating circumstances.
Anagnostopoulos, 35, was sentenced last year after strangling Caroline at the couple’s home in an upscale suburb of Athens. He then lied to the police, saying she had been killed “by robbers” before the fabric of his lies unraveled.
According to his Anagnostopoulos legal team, his brazen appeal will argue that he didn’t mean to kill Caroline and reacted during a fight because he was afraid she was going to hurt Lydia.
David Crouch, 79, spoke out before a self-pitying Papis Anagnostopoulos (R) appealed against his 27-year prison sentence for killing Caroline (L), 19, in their Athens home in May 2021. Anagnostopoulos is set to argue that He killed his young wife because he ‘was afraid she would hurt’ their nine-month-old daughter Lydia (centre)
Anagnostopoulos (pictured May last year under police escort), 35, was sentenced last year after strangling Caroline at the couple’s home in an upscale suburb of Athens. He then lied to the police, saying she had been killed “by robbers” before the fabric of his lies unraveled
Led by new lawyer Alexandros Papaiwanidis – who was fired by Anagnostopoulos last year but has now rehired – they will argue that he deserves a more lenient sentence.
Understandably, they would say that he was a “model prisoner and helped other prisoners” while serving his time in Korydallos prison.
But in an angry attack Mr Crouch called him “vile” and said: “If the death penalty were still available here (in Greece), I would consider it an honor to be allowed to pull the handle to consign him to oblivion.”
I hate him more than I’ve hated anything in my life. I hope he rots in hell.
Speaking ahead of the appeal, Mr Papaioannidis told MailOnline: ‘Not a day goes by without my client regretting what happened but what he wants and what we want is justice. He does not deny what happened, but we demand that the sentence be mitigated.
Every day in prison, he thinks about what happened and how much he hates himself, his only thoughts are of his daughter.
All he wants is a fair trial and the extenuating circumstances of what happened at the time of Caroline’s death taken into account.
He is not a narcissist and accepts the decisions of the courts, since his conviction he was a typical prisoner in the prison and helps with other inmates and his behavior was very good and we will explain all this in court.
He also responds to suggestions from Caroline’s father that Anagnostopoulos, a helicopter pilot, killed Caroline because she found out he was a drug runner.
Mr Papaioannidis said: ‘No evidence of this allegation came to light at trial and no evidence was found in the investigation and he was never prosecuted for similar offences. He has had an impeccable 11-year career as a helicopter pilot. We respect Caroline’s father’s grief but categorically deny the allegations.
But Mr. Crouch paints a very different picture for his late son-in-law, saying that since her death, he and his wife, Susannah, had learned that Anagnostopoulos had control over her finances and movements.
“In order to give you an idea of what my daughter’s killer was like, let me tell you what Susannah and I found out about the way he treated Caroline,” said Mr. Crouch.
When Caroline left home for the first time in order to attend the University of Piraeus, Susana and I gave her a monthly allowance of 750 euros for food, rent, etc. Within a year she was married, stopped attending classes, and was living with her husband.
Since I had some other obligations, I continued to give her a monthly allowance of 750€ and Susanna reduced her contribution from 750€ to 250€ per month.
Led by new lawyer Alexandros Papayanidis – who was fired by Anagnostopoulos last year but has now rehired – they will argue that he deserves a more lenient sentence for killing his wife.
Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Crouch painted a very different picture of his late son-in-law than his lawyer had pushed, saying that since her death, he and his wife Susanna had learned that Anagnostopoulos had control over her finances and movements.
We did this because we felt it would be good for Caroline to have a certain amount of independence from her husband and not ask him for money for clothes and other personal items.
We found out after her death that the money Susannah and I put into Caroline’s bank account each month had been appropriated by her husband and that any time she needed money for coffee or food for her pets, she had to ask her father, her father said.
He controlled all the local shopping operations, and they always shopped together, and she was never allowed to go shopping alone.
Sometimes she was allowed to meet a friend for coffee, but he guaranteed that she would travel to the rendezvous in a cab driven by his friend and paid for in advance. When it was time to go home, she was told to call him so he could come and pick her up,” Mr Crouch said.
It is a mystery to me how I endured this arrangement. Caroline has always been a strong-willed girl with fixed ideas and will never allow herself to be bullied.
The conspirator Anagnostopoulos brutally strangled Caroline and then covered up her death for six weeks – insisting that she had been murdered by robbers who had even strangled their pet dog, Roxy.
But the hardened detective’s work exposed his lies after details emerged on Caroline’s smartwatch that did not match what her cheating husband had told the Greek police and he was arrested after he traveled to Alonissos Island to attend his wife’s funeral.
Mr Crouch added: ‘After my daughter died, Susanna and Caroline’s husband accompanied her body to Alonnisos for the funeral and I have never seen a man so distressed by grief.
Although I was completely devastated by my daughter’s death, I knew his grief was greater than mine, something I had never thought possible.
Our hands clasped in my house, tears streaming down our faces, absolutely inconsolable. After the funeral he returns to Athens with his parents and Lydia.
But Liverpool-born Crouch, a retired engineer, soon began to suspect his brother-in-law.
He told MailOnline: ‘In-between the funeral and Caroline’s memorial service, I would sometimes have disturbing thoughts.
It struck me that there was something strange about the whole affair, just little things that made no sense. Why would thieves kill my daughter before they left after they took all the valuables and money in the house.
How did they know of the internal CCTV system and how they were turned on enough to consider removing the memory card from the system.
Then I saw Caroline’s husband on the morning of Caroline’s memorial service. He was still depressed, the picture of misery, but he embraced me, and again tears began to run down his face, and his voice choked with emotion.
He told me he had brought me a gift and unboxed a huge framed photo of him and Caroline that was taken at their wedding in Portugal.
I was so touched by this cute gift he knew it was my favorite picture. I noticed then that he was wearing an expensive Rolex, of which he was very proud.
Subsequently, he sold this watch to a dealer for 7,500 euros. I then learned that the theft was committed by completely incompetent people or that something was wrong with his story.
Koneving Anagostopoulos (pictured May 2021 outside the couple’s home in Athens) brutally strangled Caroline and then covered up her death for six weeks – insisting she had been murdered by robbers who had even strangled their pet dog Roxy.
The picture became clearer an hour later when two large policemen led him away from the cemetery and towards a waiting helicopter, ostensibly to identify the suspect who had been arrested in Athens.
One did not need to be an expert on body language to realize that the policemen who were driving him away had not graciously herded him into his VIP transport, but had taken the man they suspected of murder for his wife.
Earlier this year, it emerged Lydia had moved to the Philippines – where Mr Crouch’s wife is from – and he told MailOnline she was now living with Caroline’s half-sister Donna.
He said: Lydia settled there happily. All of her cousins, like all Philbyans, have straight black hair – so she stands out from the crowd and gets a lot of attention – which she enjoys.
