Fear for little Lydia's physical integrity, because of the bouts of anger that Carolaon Crouch allegedly had, Babis Anagnostopoulos felt, as he said today in his apology to the court and while referring to the events leading up to the crime inside the Sweet Waters Maisonette.
- Anagnostopoulos recital: He cried in his apology and talked about Caroline like she was alive[/URL][/B]
- "What matters is that I will never see Caroline again... the apology is small." One year later Anagnostopoulos' apology
He fought a "battle" to prove that he committed the crime in heat, that he lost control from another fit of anger of the girl and that for five minutes he had "climbed on top of her" to calm her down! He was, however, "rained" questions from the president about how he drove the "woman he adored" to her death and did not think for a full five minutes, while he was on top of her, that he was killing her and depriving their daughter of her mother.
"There is no logic. And I don't have any answers yet, I was trying to calm her down, to end the incident, to say sorry to me and Lydia for what we went through before" she replied.
Babis Anagnostopoulos kept repeating that that night, prompted by another outburst of anger that 21-year-old Caroline had, he felt for the first time that Lydia "might get the ball" as well. As he said, he realized this when the girl pushed the child away.
However, he fell into several contradictions, which was also pointed out by the president of the court, who paid particular attention to the defendant's ambiguous statements about the character of his wife, whom he almost presented as dangerous on the one hand and as a perfect mother on the other.
"Mr. Anagnostopoulos, either she is superior with her child or she is not," the president told the defendant, wanting to demonstrate that the two together - that is, feeling fear for his child because of his mother and at the same time believing that she was also a perfect mother - cannot go together. "When I realized she was dead, I started pulling my hair out," he said.
"I was crying, I was touching her, I was looking at her, I was completely confused... I couldn't understand how I let this thing happen," he added.
"On edge"
Starting on the eve of the crime, Babis Anagnostopoulos said that Caroline had returned from a date with a friend "on edge." "She told me well feed her and do what you want, I'm going to bed and I stayed with the little girl," the defendant said.
And he continued: "It was the precursor to another outburst. I knew what was coming I knew I shouldn't add fuel to the fire myself. The usual thing I would do was to wait and after 45 minutes he would send me a message Unfortunately, that's not how things happened that night. I believed and still believe that we had been through so much. We were completely in sync, from the smallest detail to all of our dreams. Caroline is irreplaceable and she is my person. At some point I got two messages. One of them said you stupid. She didn't mean it as an expletive."
President: It's an expletive
Defendant: I didn't misunderstand or take it seriously. She then sent me a second message, which she told me, referring to the little girl: "Don't bring her up or don't ...". I thought it was a message to hurt me Because I didn't give her the child, she asked me twice.Now that I look back on this day, I should have called a colleague to get him out of his day off. At the time I didn't think that way. This message was in the context of outbursts. He was a sad man. He is a good man confused. I didn't respond to the message. I let some time pass. I don't remember how many minutes. After 12:00 I went up to the room. Some time had passed and I went upstairs so we could all sleep together. She refused. I don't remember verbatim what she said to me. Words don't matter
President: Everything matters from this point in time.
Defendant: Going up the stairs, she had said "you're both going to die, I don't care". When we went up to the room, he said: "Take child and leave me alone". Then I went up with the baby two more times.
President: What happened the third time you went up with the baby?
Defendant: Caroline was lying down. The wisest decision would have been to have slept with the baby on the couch. She was lying down, I thought she was calming down. I think she noticed me when I came in. I left the baby next to her so I could go around the other side and go lay down too. I didn't even care about me sleeping. But for the little girl to sleep in her bed and end the incident. I went up to bed myself and that made her angry, because I did what she told me not to do, which was not to let the little girl sleep in the bed.
President: Did she mention anything specific to you?
Defendant: She started screaming loudly, the little girl woke up. It's hard for me to say the words he was using. It's not easy for me to say anything bad about Caroline. You understand, I don't have to tell you
President: You ought to say.
Defendant: If you understand how important this man was to me. It was a moment of out of control exuberance "I told you not to bring her here, go away, I don't want you", ugly words, it doesn't matter. On the spur of the moment.
President: Did the episode between you last long?
Defendant: Maybe less than five minutes.
Chairman: By the readings of the clock at that time it appears that he had an intense pulse and it appears (from the clock) that he traveled a distance of 141 meters
Defendant: What I can think of, after the incident, after he made a movement, he got up with his torso on the bed and told us to leave, the little girl had woken up. He pushed her away It was the first time in such an outburst that the ball and the child were picked up. She was scared. She heard the screaming.
President: Did you consider that your wife would harm your child?
Defendant: No, I did not, she was a perfect mother, wonderful. Her daughter was her life. She loved her more than me, more than her life. At the same time, at that moment, I don't know if she was so clouded, if she unintentionally hurt the little girl.
President: What thoughts did you have about your wife?
Defendant: In those moments of tension, I don't think about whether those outbursts are within bounds. She was clouded to the point where she was saying, "I don't want the child." I wanted her to accept all that Lydia and I had been through.
Chairman: Did you think at that time that she was dangerous to the child?
Defendant: That in one of her outbursts she unintentionally harmed the child. It tore me apart when I saw the child in a rudimentary danger...
President: Were you frightened?
Defendant: Very much so. I was very much afraid for the little girl, not for myself. I was afraid that I could not predict her next move.
President: So you were afraid that she would harm the child?
Defendant: At the moment of the explosion she harmed the child, unintentionally. I thought that the tensions are now affecting the little girl. She was hitting me, and if she hits me 500 times I don't mind.
Chairman: Did you feel that in your absence it might create problems for the child's physical integrity? Would you be afraid to leave the child with his mother?
Defendant: From the moment I saw the child affected once, I thought it could happen again.
President: So you thought that the violence could reach the child?
Defendant: In my mind the two parts of her, her outbursts and the general character, are completely separate. As a mother, she had no intention of harming her. I try to justify Caroline in everything, because I believe her moment of eruption is not herself. And that she adores the little girl.
President: Did you feel anger about this incident?
Defendant: Sadness and grief. She was a perfect mother and she unintentionally harmed the child.
President: Was the child ever the cause of an episode of violence by her?
Defendant: No.
President: Then how were you afraid that she would do something to the child?
Defendant: I was the target, not the child. I don't consider her a violent person.
President: How do you not consider her, if you were afraid for your child....
Defendant:
I do not rule out that I have idealized Caroline so much that I cannot see the contradiction...
"I tried to calm Lydia"
Returning to the crucial hours of the crime, he said that after Caroline pushed little Lydia away, he tried to calm the child. Then, he said, he went up to the bedroom for the fourth time and asked Caroline, "Do you understand what you did? Did you hit the little girl?" It was a big mistake to get back up in the situation I was in. All I wanted to hear was an "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." But I did it very quickly.
President: We don't ask for an apology, we are given one. Your wife was not your daughter...
Defendant: I should have treated her with respect and love and even though she may have done something wrong.
Continuing, he said: "I went back down to the living room at about 2pm. I was going back and forth in the living room to get the little girl to sleep. And thinking about what happened. What's going to happen. What I'm going to do... At that moment there is chaos in my mind. I rise again for an attempt at what I saw as the only normal, mature solution. Let's all sleep together, let this all pass. An apology to end, with no discussion of her reaction to the little one. It was a little after 4 a.m."
Chairman: Was she in a state, was she asleep?
Defendant: I am not in a position to say whether she was asleep, her eyes were closed. I knew I was there when I sat quite close to her. I lay down next to her. She understood, because she moved, she turned her head. I went to take her in my arms.
President: How did she react?
Defendant: Abruptly, she went to shake.... that don't hug me, had a reaction, told me to go away.
Chairman: How did you react?
Accused: I waited for the time to pass to calm down. I was saying he can't have not understood... When he started to react, my last hope was gone.
President: So you saw the same behavior as the other three times. What changed this time? Did you take it for granted that he would apologize?
Accused: I did not take it for granted, I thought it was the most likely.
President: Why did this reaction make you so angry this time compared to the other times?
Defendant: It is a result of what had happened with the baby I thought that at some point he would calm down I wanted to end the incident, to say an apology.
President: Did you climb on her body?
Defendant: I was trying to hug her Yes, I did.
President: Why?
Defendant: Because the way she was flailing, she didn't want me to hug her.
President: But the previous times she did worse.
Defendant: I was trying to hug her, the style of saying do you understand what you were doing? I wanted her to calm down.
President: Two and a half hours later? Is it possible that you want her to calm down and you're all over her?
Defendant: This time it was the exception.
President: The exception that doesn't allow you to see her again
Defendant: I wanted her to understand what Lydia and I went through.
President: Understand what? Since you say she was sleeping...
Defendant: I don't know if she was sleeping
President: You say you were pushing her. Where did you press her?
Defendant: On the pillow.
President: How did she react?
Defendant: She was yelling at me.
President: Where on the pillow? Did you also put your hand in her mouth?
Defendant: No
President: What was she yelling at you?
Defendant: Get off, some of the common swear words had made her much more upset
President: And you also took the pillow and used it on her head? What was the purpose?
Defendant: There was no purpose, we are now trying to make sense now at a point that I can't even explain in my mind.... It is so cloudy in my mind....
President: didn't you understand that what you were doing was leading the girl to her death? You say you were worshipping...
Defendant: Whatever, I am trying to answer you is what I am answering myself.
Chairman: We are talking about five minutes when you feel you had "the woman of your dreams" in your hands. Did you not understand what you were doing?
Defendant: It doesn't make sense to me either, what we are saying is clearly wrong
Chairman: So in those five minutes not a minute did it cross your mind that "I adore this girl" and that the child had the right not to be deprived of his mother? But also his father ...
Defendant: Was there ever a chance in a rational calm thought that I would see that the child would lose his parents and accept that?
President: Should it have crossed your mind? You have now become the violent one. Are you leading a human being to her death, the mother of your child? What were you thinking at that moment, why did you lose your reason?
Defendant: Whatever had preceded...
Chairman: You have brought us here a bunch of certificates that you attended first aid courses and you did not understand that you were leading her to death...
Defendant: At that moment my first thought was that she fainted...
Chairman: When did you realize she was dead?
Defendant: When I saw her in the face.
I came down (after she realized she was dead) to see how the girl was doing, if she was sleeping. It is impossible to realize what had happened. I ran back upstairs, it was impossible to realize what had happened. ".
Chairman: When did the instinct of self-preservation begin to work? Why did you also take actions to conceal the crime
Defendant: I continued to be in the same situation for a long time. I thought about how I let this stuff happen....
President: Did you think about yourself in prison?
Defendant: Yes. Anyone who does such things is bound to end up in prison...
President: And what did you do?
Defendant: It was impossible for me to manage this situation....
The apology continues.
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