Caroline Crouch's dad breaks silence after her husband was convicted of murder

The heartbroken family of murdered Brit Caroline Crouch say they are glad her killer husband has been sent to one of Europe's worst jails.

Pilot Babis Anagnostopoulos admitted killing Caroline, 20, as she lay asleep in front of their baby daughter and killing his wife's puppy to make it look like there had been a break-in. He denied murder but was found guilty.

The 34-year-old will become a "broken man" in the notorious prison where he will serve his life sentence and will never see his daughter again, Caroline's dad said.

Anagnostopoulos, branded an "odious creature" by her family, was jailed for premeditated murder, animal abuse, perverting the course of justice and lying to authorities at a court in Athens.

He will serve around 18 years behind bars at the maximum security Korydallos jail, home to some of the most violent criminals in the country.

Caroline's dad David Crouch told the Daily Mail : "No amount of prison time can ever bring back my beautiful daughter but I am just gratified that the court didn't believe the scurrilous nonsense that he produced during his testimony.

"I am further gratified to know that he will serve his time in Korydallos Prison, the toughest prison in Greece which has one of the worst prison systems in Europe."

He said that many believe Anagnostopoulos will not survive his jail term, but said if he does he will be "a changed man, a broken man, far older than his true age".

Mr Crouch, 79, continued that he and Caroline's mother Susan can carry on with their lives with granddaughter Lydia - whose name will be changed.

He said: "I intend to change Lydia's name to that of her mother so that she will never be associated with this odious creature."

Mr Crouch said he will ensure the killer pilot never gets to see his daughter again, or has any contact with her.

Before his guilt was announced to the public, prosecutor Eugenia Stathopoulu, said the evidence indicates he killed the mother of his child in cold blood.

The prosecution argued that Anagnostopoulos had covered his wife's mouth with his hand and her face with a pillow while lying on top of her - leading to a drawn-out and "torturous" death.

According to coroners, Caroline was "tortured" as Anagnostopoulos held his hand over the unsuspecting Brit's mouth to stifle her cries and covered her face with a pillow and suffocated her.

It took five minutes for her to die, they add.

He then placed their 11-month-old daughter next to her dead mother, killed Caroline's pet dog Roxy "to make the crime more credible" and tied himself up before calling police in a bid to fool authorities into thinking the Brit had been murdered in a bungled break-in.

For the next 37 days he covered up the crime speaking of his grief and even attending police line-ups of possible culprits.

The prosecutor said: “His aim was to confuse authorities and he won 37 days [of freedom].

"If there is one common trait to all his crimes it is that the accused underestimated the intelligence of others."

Police eventually caught up with him when data from the pilot's mobile - revealed that he had been walking around the maisonette when he said he had been tied up.

Investigators also gleaned key evidence from the Brit's smart watch, which proved she was asleep when the suspect started choking her and also how long it took for her to die.

On the first day of the murder trial last month, Anagnostopoulos told the court he "still loves" his wife.

He initially told cops a gang of foreign thieves stormed their home and hung the family's pet dog, Roxy, from the bannister in a botched home invasion.

Ms Crouch, 20, was found dead with the couple's young daughter beside her, before cops discovered Anagnostopoulos tied up under the bed.

Greek police initially launched a manhunt for the robbers but soon turned their attention to Anagnostopoulos due to inconsistencies in his story and he was eventually arrested.

He then confessed to killing his wife in-front of their 11-month-old. The pilot admitted to the killing but maintains that it was a 'crime of passion' after she threatened to divorce him.

He told judges in April: “I loved her and I still love her. That is never going to change."

He added: “It was never my aim to hurt my wife. I loved her and I love her.

"That never changed and from the day I met her it will never change.”

He says he killed her after an argument in which she threatened to divorce him because she suspected he was having an affair.

The pilot, 33, used his bare hands to end his wife's life by cutting off her air passages, but also used a pillow to stifle any noise, Coroner Chara Spiliopoulou claimed last month.

“The picture I had was that someone had put their hand in her mouth and then the pillow was used so nothing could be heard,” she told the court, explaining that Crouch’s pulse had shot up during the course of the attack.

“I estimate that death took roughly five minutes … she was tortured.”

The coroner went on to detail the horrific sights and smells left in the Athens maisonette resulting from the pet dog being hung.

By the time police arrived the only person not tied up was the couple’s daughter who was lying silently by her mother’s side.

Neighbour Angeliki Gerolymatou wept as she told the court how the young Brit had become isolated in the suburban maisonette and that her husband had cut her off financially.

“She was closed in that house for days … he was very controlling,” said Gerolymatou, who lived in the maisonette next door and whose family had initially comforted the pilot when they believed him to be a genuinely grieving widow.

“She definitely felt a bit cut off from her friends. She had told me of her desire to go out and have a drink with a friend of hers. Caroline did not go out often … it was once every so often.”

Caroline, the daughter of a retired oil executive who was raised on the Greek island of Alonissos, met the older pilot as a teen and is now buried on the island she grew up on.

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