Caroline Crouch murder: Greek husband confesses to killing 20-year-old British wife

A Greek man has confessed to murdering his 20-year-old British wife at the home they shared with their young daughter after previously claiming she was killed during a robbery.

Babis Anagnostopoulos initially said his wife, Caroline Crouch, was killed in front of their 11-month-old, who was found "patting her mother with her hands and trying to wake her up" when police arrived at the couple’s home in Glyka Nera, Greece, on May 11.

In a statement released on Thursday night, Greek police confirmed Anagnostopoulos has now confessed to murdering his wife.

“The homicide of a 20-year-old woman in Glyka Nera on May 11 has been solved. The perpetrator is her 33-year-old husband, who has confessed his actions,” the statement read.

Anagnostopoulos had claimed that three men broke into their house in the affluent Athens suburb on the day of the murder. After killing their dog, Anagnostopoulos said the men tied him to a chair and strangled Ms Crouch to death in front of their child, who was unharmed.

He claimed to have pleaded with the robbers not to harm his family and told them where to find jewellery and €15,000 (£13,000) in cash, which was hidden in a Monopoly box. The couple had intended to use the money to pay builders for work on a plot of land they had recently bought, he said.

Anagnostopoulos told police he was able to raise the alarm by using his nose to dial the number.

"The tape was across his mouth but he managed to make himself understood," a police spokesperson told The Telegraph at the time of the murder.

On Thursday, Anagnostopoulos was called to the headquarters of the Greek Police in Athens to be interviewed. The previous day, he attended a memorial service for his late wife on the island of Alonissos, where she is from.

According to reports in Greek media, Anagnostopoulos was summoned for questioning after police examining his phone discovered activity at the time he alleged he was tied up. Movements recorded on the smartwatch worn by Ms Crouch also reportedly jarred with the timeline provided by her husband.

Earlier this month, the Greek press reported that the tape that Anagnostopoulos said was used to tie him up did not bear any genetic material.

Ms Crouch was a student who was born in Greece but held a British passport. Her funeral was held on the Aegean island of Alonissos, where her British father and Filipina mother live.

Following the murder, the Ministry of Civil Protection offered a reward of €300,000 (£250,000) for any information that would lead to an arrest. Police officers pursued gangs who operate in the region, robbers with a known record of torturing homeowners and criminals who had recently been released from prison in the wake of the murder.

On May 16, a 30-year-old was arrested in connection with the murder while trying to travel to Bulgaria via Evros in northern Greece with a fake passport, local papers reported.

The unnamed Georgian man was reportedly linked to another break-in at a house near where Ms Crouch was murdered.

The brutality of the killing made headlines in Greece. It coincided with a series of murders seemingly related to organised crime from April to June, leading to fears of a new violent crime wave taking over the country.