THE twisted Greek pilot who killed his British wife Caroline Crouch is set to spend the rest of his life in prison after dropping his appeal to overturn his life sentence.
Babis Anagnostopoulos, 35, who murdered 20-year-old Caroline in Glyka Nera, Greece, said he was putting a stop to the appeals process citing "extremely serious reasons."
This means he will have to serve his entire sentence in the top-security Malandrinos prison in central Greece, where he has been locked up for the past year.
His lawyer Alexandros Papaioannidis said: "My client has decided for extremely important reasons, which are not announceable, to waive all legal means, specifically the appeal he filed against the decision of the mixed jury court in Athens."
The lawyer added he would proceed with "all the procedures [required before] the appeals court in Athens … in order for the trial at a secondary level not to continue."
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Anagnostopoulos will serve at least 20 years according to Greek law, although in his case, it will be topped up by a further 12 years for cruelly killing Caroline’s pet dog, Roxy, and deliberately perverting the course of justice.
When the 35-year-old is finally allowed to serve a request to be freed he will be in his late 60s, with no guarantee that the plea will be met.
The UK-trained aviator made the shock announcement through his lawyer a week before the appeals trial, which started March 28, was set to continue in the Greek capital.
Papaioannidis said the pilot was in "a very bad psychological state" which would also prevent him this year from sitting exams in the hope of getting into law school.
Anagnostopoulos hoped to avoid a court appearance last week, claiming that he was preparing for the end-of-year exams but the appeals court judge sitting in Athens rejected the plea.
Caroline's Liverpool-born dad, David, questioned the integrity of the pilot's decision and slammed him as a "killer, a liar, and a thief."
He told The Sun Online: "I am reluctant to take this announcement at face value knowing what a duplicitous b****** Anagnostopoulos is.
"As I once said to his mother, he is not only a killer and a liar but also a thief, stealing the €70,000 that Susan and I sent to Caroline to buy some land on which to build a house.
"I can’t believe that he is prepared to drop his appeal and calmly return to prison to serve out his life sentence plus eleven and a half years, he is not that kind of person.
"I am wondering if his decision is in some way connected to the gang with which he was involved; the gang for whom he would provide a helicopter service which he told me about.
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"This is the gang that he told Caroline about and which precipitated her death.
"He told me about it in a letter written while on remand; a letter hand-delivered to me by his father who now denies that any such letter exists."
The pilot's move to drop the appeal was described as "deeply narcissistic and manipulative" by an expert psychiatrist while other lawyers branded the move "suicidal and highly unusual."
A lawyer with years of experience in the Greek judicial system said: "I am shocked that his lawyer allowed it.
"When he eventually comes out he will be an old man … one can’t help but feel that he has done this for PR reasons, believing that he can somehow look good in Greek society if he plays the martyr."
As I once said to his mother, he is not only a killer and a liar but also a thief
Addressing the court last week, psychiatrist Alchistis Igoumenaki debunked any notion that the murder was not premeditated.
She said it was clear the pilot suffered from “narcissistic personality disorder” and as a result could show “no empathy for the pain of Caroline’s parents.”
The psychologist told the tribunal: “He was manipulative in the extreme and this was proved by the letter he wrote to Caroline’s mother which he sent to her father.
“In that letter he tried to distort reality saying things like ‘you know how much Caroline loved me’ and 'things didn’t happen quite as they seem'.
“With absolute logic and cool-headedness, the accused was preparing his future.
“It is a letter that he wrote to show his daughter,” she said referring to then 11-month-old Lydia who was found by police next to her mother’s lifeless body.
“Everything he did was utterly manipulative.”
It comes just over two years after Anagnostopoulos killed Caroline on May 11, 2021, as she lay asleep in what a coroner would describe as “an agonising and prolonged death.”
In an especially twisted move, Anagnostopoulos placed baby Lydia next to her mum's lifeless body.
His parents, who had said they would stand as defense witnesses for their son, were due to take the stand later this month in the hope that their testimony could help reduce his sentence.
The pilot met Crouch, who was 13 younger, on the Greek island of Alonnisos where the student is buried.