At dawn on 11 May 2021, a gagged and bound man alerted the Amnesty International to a brutal robbery at his house in Glyka Nera where he lived with his wife and their 11-month-old daughter.
34-year-old Haralambos Anagnostopoulos tearfully described to police officers the horrific moments he lived through from when the three robbers entered the house until they left, leaving behind dead his 20-year-old wife Caroline Crouch and the little dog the woman had adopted.
One month later, on June 16, the 34-year-old pilot was taken by helicopter from Alonissos to the General Police Directorate of Attica. Police officers waited for the 20-year-old's memorial service to end before bringing in Anagnostopoulos, who just seconds before was crying in the arms of his mother-in-law.
The pilot's confession to Caroline's murder
The evidence they had on hand was abundant. Six hours later, the pilot confessed that there had been no robbery at his home and that he had killed Caroline with a choking death after they had an argument, and that he had hung Roxy, the little dog the 20-year-old had adopted, from her leash.
Today the 34-year-old, who has been held for 10 months at Korydallos prison, will face judges at the Mixed Court of Appeal who will try his confessed crime against the 20-year-old mother of his child, who has British nationality. Caroline had a slow "agonising" death as she struggled to breathe for a full six minutes. The young woman was found with a cloth wrapped around her neck, strapped backwards with her baby sleeping on her back.
The indictment
The 34-year-old man faces felony charges of intentional homicide committed while in a calm mental state and animal cruelty as well as two misdemeanor counts of making a false report by making others suspect of his actions, and making a false statement on a subsequent occasion.
Starting today, the pilot and his defense will fight his battle to be able to remove from the charge of murdering the 20-year-old girl the condition accepted by the indictment: that he committed it in a calm state of mind.
What he will say in court
The defendant will attempt to convince judges that the crime was committed in heat of passion, that he was greatly provoked and reacted instantaneously to "an aggressive behavior by Caroline toward the child." that he did not premeditate anything and that "other events triggered the situation", as he stated in the apology memorandum he handed in to the investigating judge on 22 June last year, a few hours before he was finally taken into custody.
But from today, the family of the 20-year-old girl will also make their own mark, their own battle for the heinous act that cut the thread of Caroline's life, who died next to her little girl. The Crouch family will fight to impose the most severe sentence on the man who for 37 days "fooled" everyone, mourning the death of his great love. The victim's side of the family does not accept that what happened on that fateful night at the house in Sweet Waters was the result of "boiling". On the contrary, it considers that the crime is rightly attributed in the indictment as "planned and staged". As one of the lawyers for the Crouch family had said after the 34-year-old's apology, "when a crime is committed in boiling point, the action is surrendered , it does not fool the authorities".
He planned and directed the crime
According to the indictment of Charalambos Anagnostopoulos, which accepted the indictment proposal of prosecutor George Nouli, the 34-year-old pilot is a "cruel and callous personality" who had isolated his 20-year-old wife , even controlling her movements. The victim, it is reported, was experiencing "as a confinement" her relationship with the thirteen years older man who had seduced her a few years before.
The husband, according to the prosecutor, premeditated the crime and that night, after an argument with the 20-year-old girl, "decided to proceed with the execution of a plan to eliminate his wife, which he had long cultivated in his mind, in order to get rid of her presence and remain alone with their child".
The judges of the Council set out one by one the 34-year-old defendant's steps before and especially after the crime in order to cover his tracks and convince him that Caroline was the victim of the robbers who invaded their home.
"The five-minute duration of the victim's suffocating choke hold, the pre-arranged method of pausing the home security camera, the surprise of the unsuspecting victim, the staging of the robbery against him from the start, and the pre-planned attempt to mislead the law enforcement authorities," in the judgment of the judges who indicted the 34-year-old, indicate a perfectly calm mental state of the defendant. As stated "from the completeness of the relevant 'staging' both after the commission of the homicide and before it, which demonstrates that he processed it earlier and in a calculated manner and not under the state of uncontrollable impulse", the complete lucidity of the accused is evident.
The pilot claims that all this was not aimed at "escaping" but at not losing his child while facing the consequences of the crime he committed under stress.
"He displayed hypocritical behaviour when he appeared sad at his victim's funeral and memorial service," the council charged him, while Mr. Noulis as to the allegation of Anagnostopoulos' interest in his daughter, referring to "cynicism and philanthropy that he showed even after the confession of his actions", stresses that "he attempted to justify the false robbery scene he created to avoid criminal responsibility as stemming from his interest "his daughter to grow up at least with her father". That is, for him to enjoy the fatherhood and upbringing of a child from whom he forcibly deprived his mother from infancy."
The trial
The proceedings before the MOJ are expected to take several court sessions before the court reaches its verdict.
Today it is likely that after the drawing of the jury that will accompany the three judges, the next trials will be given and the trial, which has number one on the docket and five more to follow, will be adjourned.
In court, Caroline's mother Susan Crouch and two friends are expected to testify on the victim's side ,
The total number of witnesses is estimated at twenty , including the coroner who determined the time of the 20-year-old's death. Also the mental health counselor to whom the couple had been referred for the problems they were experiencing after Caroline had a miscarriage. Testimony will be given by the police officers who investigated the case and the neighbor of the couple.
At the same time in court will testify and a member of the animal welfare association of Marathon, from where Caroline had adopted her dog.
From the side of the defendant reportedly will be proposed persons as experts.
Source: APE-MPA
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