CAROLINE Crouch’s devastated dad has blasted her “coward” killer husband, saying he will hate him for the “rest of his life”.
The 20-year-old Brit was smothered to death by her husband Charalambos “Babis” Anagnostopoulos on May 11 as their one-year-old daughter Lydia lay nearby.
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He then strangled their puppy Roxy before telling cops they were the victims of a botched break-in at home in Athens.
Caroline’s retired oil exec dad David, 78, said Anagnostopoulos switched off the CCTV system as knew he would have been “no match” for his kickboxing daughter.
“Babis continues to maintain that he killed my daughter in a fit of rage during an argument and it was not premeditated – this does not fit
with facts,” David told the Daily Mail.
“He removed the memory card from the internal CCTV system shortly after midnight. Caroline was killed almost four hours later when she was asleep.
“This is the action of a coward – my daughter had a black belt in kickboxing and he would know that he was no match for her when she was awake.
“It’s at times like this that you understand why people take the law into their own hands.”
‘BLOWN HIS HEAD OFF’
He said his grief turned to fury when he discovered cops had taken Anagnostopoulos from his daughter’s memorial service to confront him with evidence proving he was the killer.
“We understood from the police that he was being rushed to Athens to identify a suspect who had been apprehended that day at the airport,” he said.
“It was some hours later that we heard he had confessed to killing my daughter.
“I said at the time that had I known what he had done when he was here, I would have blown his lying head right off his shoulders and gladly taken the consequences.
“I feel exactly the same today and I know that I will feel this way for the rest of my life.”
David said he and wife Susan learned of Caroline’s death from neighbours on Greek island Alonissos.
He said: “I’ll never forget how I felt. It was as if an icy hand had reached inside my chest and gripped my heart. It was the worst day of my life.”
I have a deep-seated worry that I may not be able to provide for Lydia in those years when she may need the most support
David Crouch
The heartbroken dad said he has been left with a burden of anger and grief.
“The sickness that afflicts me is of the heart. It is broken over the loss of
my daughter,” he said.
But David’s said his main focus is to provide the “very best life” for his baby granddaughter – although he worries he won’t be around for very long to help raise her.
“I am not a young man and all of us are mortal,” he said.
“I have a deep-seated worry that I may not be able to provide for Lydia in those years when she may need the most support.
“My one aim right now is to give the very best life to the child of my wonderful daughter.”
He added: “Both Susan and I will spend the rest of our lives making sure that justice is done and ensuring that Caroline’s little daughter Lydia is brought up with all the advantages that we can give her and that the memories of her mother live forever.”
‘BLAMELESS’
While David and Susan are currently seeking sole custody of Lydia through the Greek courts, the couple speak to Anagnostopoulos’s mum “almost every day”.
“She telephones almost every day to ask about Lydia and, of course, she is quite free to visit whenever she chooses,” David said.
“However, as she used to teach at the local school, she is quite well known on the island and feelings are still running very high, as they are throughout Greece.
“She, of course, is quite blameless but is being made to suffer for the sins of her son.”
David said he believed there was “some foundation” to rumours in the Greek press that the killer pilot was also linked to drug smuggling.
He said Caroline had a strong “sense of right and wrong” and would have “threatened to leave him” if she had found out he was involved.
And sources claimed Caroline was ”shocked by something terrible before she was killed” and her coded diary might give the answers.
It is believed that the young mum used a type of code in her diary that contained English and Greek abbreviations and different coloured pens to prevent her husband from reading the heartbreaking journal.
It appears that she used code for the word “beating” and symbols to brand her husband a “dangerous man”.
Anagnostopoulos, who is in prison, claims he killed Caroline because he feared for his safety after a violent row.
“I don’t want to speculate on what motive he had – that is for the police to determine. I only want justice for my beautiful daughter who was killed in a most cowardly act,” David said.
“He knew that he was no match for her physically. She was young, fit and an accomplished kickboxer, so he took the memory card out of the internal CCTV system and suffocated her while she slept.
“I imagine that he will have a fine time explaining that to the killers he will be incarcerated with in Korydallos Prison, reputedly the worst jail in Europe.”
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