Major twist in Caroline Crouch case as dad claims she was murdered by husband after making horror drug discovery | The Sun
CAROLINE Crouch was brutally murdered by her husband because she discovered he was drug running, her dad has claimed.
The Brit mum, 20, was smothered to death by Greek chopper pilot Babis Anagnostopoulos, 34, in May 2021.
He was jailed for life for murdering Caroline in front of their baby and cruelly killed her beloved dog before faking a botched break-in.
Caroline's heartbroken dad David Crouch, 79, has now spoken publicly for the first time on Greek TV.
He explosively claimed her “stupid” partner Babis killed his daughter because she had threatened to leave him if he continued trafficking drugs.
Mr Crouch told ANT1 TV channel: "I tell you why he murdered Caroline in front of his child … he was involved with a drugger’s gang.
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"There was a restaurant that Caroline and Babis used to go to and the man there who owned the restaurant was involved in drugs.
"He spoke to Babis and he told him that the gang he was involved in needed a helicopter pilot.
"Babis was very stupid.Instead of keeping his mouth shut he told Caroline.
"Now Caroline was a very honest person and said she would not have anything to do with it and if he continued with this drug business she would leave immediately and go to the Philippines.”
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Former gas executive Mr Crouch, who lives on theGreek island of Alonissos where Caroline was raised with wife Suzanne, explained that when Babis told the gang his wife had found out he was ordered to “keep her quiet.”
Mr Crouch added: "He then told the people, the gang, that he couldn’t do it and they asked him why and I just told you how stupid he is, he said ‘I told my wife and she said if I continue doing it she is going to leave me’ and they said you can’t tell your wife, you have got to keep her quiet, if she believes you she’ll always know this and one day she is going to talk and so we will have to get rid of her.
“And so in the end he killed her. That was the only reason he killed her because he thought if he didn’t, both he and Caroline would be killed by the drug gang."
Mr Crouch claimed the now jailed pilot had confessed all in a typed letter he had sent him.
Caroline was viciously smothered to death as she slept by the Babis in May 2021 in a murder that sent shockwaves through Greece.
The couple’s then 11-month-old daughter, Lydia, was found lying next to her dead mum’s body.
For 37 days Babis put up the pretense that his young wife was brutally murdered by a gang who had broken into their maisonette on the outskirts of Athens tying them up before they ransacked the house.
He sobbed to reporters, visited his wife's grave with their daughter and even comforted Caroline's devastated parents.
It was only after eight hours of interrogation that he finally gave up the charade and confessed to the crime himself.
In a coroner’s report, Caroline’s death was described as agonising amid compelling evidence that it took at least five minutes for the 19-year-old to die in his hands.
Before being sentenced to life in prison last year, Babis was described as “dangerously narcissistic” and capable of committing the same crime again by a psychiatrist who appeared as an expert witness for the defense.
That was the only reason he killed her because he thought if he didn’t, both he and Caroline would be killed by the drug gang.
Mr Crouch revealed that his granddaughter Lydia was no longer on Alonissos, where her mother is buried, but living very “happily” abroad in the Philipinnes where she was being cared for by his “famous artist” stepdaughter and her prominent business husband.
The little girl, who now calls his stepdaughter "mummy" and plays with her three children, still had no idea how her real mother had died, he told the Greek TV station.
He said: “Caroline was very, very close to her stepsister and they would speak very frequently on the phone and message each other.
“At the moment [Lydia] doesn’t think her mother was murdered, she just thinks her mother has died … she doesn’t really understand death.
"We have never spoken about her father at all she has never asked about her father and so we have never spoken about it."
A family friend told The Sun that Mr Crouch had deliberately waited until Lydia was safely abroad before going public with the claims.
They said: “David thinks the world of his granddaughter and only wants the best for her, just as he always wanted the best for Caroline.
“He waited a long time for this day.”
Mr Crouch, who described his former son-in-law as a "coward" who made sure he attacked his wife as she lay asleep, has made it a life mission for Babis to never be in touch again with the "wonderful little girl" whose mother he murdered.
The mission extends to Babis’ parents having custody of Lydia.
He said: “My stepdaughter has three of her own children and [Lydia] plays with them continuously.
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"She calls my stepdaughter 'mummy' and her husband 'daddy' and she looks upon the children of my stepdaughter as brothers and sisters.
"So it would be ridiculous in my opinion to have her stay with the parents of a man who murdered her mother.”
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