The Greek pilot who maintained for weeks that his wife had been tortured and murdered by a roving gang of thieves, only to turn around and confess to having killed her himself just hours after her funeral, is now claiming that he did so in “a fit of rage.” An attorney for Babis Anagnostopoulos countered in a Thursday interview the accusation that he carefully planned the murder of his wife, Caroline Crouch. Instead, lawyer Alexis Papaioannidis told The Times, the 32-year-old pilot had been incensed by Crouch’s alleged “mistreatment” of their 11-month-old daughter, Lydia. Papaioannidis claimed that the couple had had previous fights about the 20-year-old Crouch’s parenting skills. “But it was that night when Caroline turned ever more abusive, violently pushing the crib to the side, that set off Babis,” the attorney said. Anagnostopoulos, who faces life in prison for the murder, told Athens police last June that he had smothered his wife—and then strangled the family puppy—after Crouch threatened to take Lydia and leave him.
