Caroline Crouch’s parents will apply for full custody of her 11-month-old daughter in Greece today, reports say.
David and Susan Crouch will reportedly ask a family court in Athens if they can look after Lydia following the murder of her British mother.
Their lawyer said yesterday the couple – who live on the Greek island of Alonissos – want to take the child in.
It comes as police released pictures of the ‘crime scene’ where Caroline, 20, was killed by husband Babis Anagnostopoulos.
It shows broken patio doors where the helicopter pilot claimed a gang had broken into their villa.
David and Susan Crouch (pictured) will reportedly ask a family court in Athens to look after Lydia following the murder of her British mother
Their lawyer said yesterday the 20-year-old’s (pictured) mother and father – who live on the Greek island of Alonissos – want to take the child in
It comes as police released a picture of the ‘crime scene’ where Caroline was killed by husband Babis Anagnostopoulos (pictured)
The Crouch family lawyer Thanassis Harmanis said David and Susan will be filing to take care of their granddaughter.
He told the Sun: ‘You cannot give the child to the parents of a murderer.’
Earlier this week the couple vowed they would seek custody of Lydia and ensure ‘the memories of her mother live forever’.
David said: ‘Both Susan and I will spend the rest of our lives making sure that justice is done and ensuring that her little daughter Lydia is brought up with all the advantages that we can give her and that the memories of her mother live forever.’
Anagnostopoulos’s parents are looking after Lydia but have said they want to agree terms.
David and Susan told of their deep pride in the young mother who was ‘cruelly taken away at the beginning of what was expected to be a wonderful life’.
In a double horror for her parents, the son-in-law they wept with had deceived them in the worst way imaginable.
Caroline’s parents are focused on the fate of their granddaughter Lydia, too young to understand what she witnessed when her father suffocated her 20-year-old mother. Pictured: Caroline (left) and husband Babis Anagnostopoulos on their wedding day
After suffocating Caroline, 20 as she slept, Babis Anagnostopoulos, 33 then smothered Roxy (pictured) and hanged the pup’s lifeless body on the banister of their first floor flat in Athens
For weeks, Anagnostopoulos played the widower as police searched for the ‘robbers’ he claimed had tied him up and killed his wife, plus the family’s pet dog, Roxy.
Then last Wednesday, hours after hugging Susan at a memorial service, the 33-year-old finally brought the cruel charade to an end with a police confession.
Yesterday police released pictures of the scene where the killer suffocated his wife and killed their dog.
It showed broken patio doors where Anagnostopoulos claimed a gang had entered their Greek villa.
A disabled security camera was on the floor along with an upturned Monopoly box where the shameless father said the ‘thieves’ had found €10,000 of savings.
The images came as he tried to blame his wife for her own death, claiming a miscarriage ‘changed her behaviour’.
He told a court she had ‘aggressive outbursts’ after the loss of their first baby and the ‘explosions’ drove him to kill her at the couple’s luxury home in Athens last month.
Yesterday police released pictures of the scene where the killer suffocated his wife and killed their dog
A CCTV camera which Babis said masked raiders had disabled is seen on the floor, with police now saying he disabled it himself in evidence he planned Caroline’s killing
A Monopoly box where Babis claimed to have been hiding a large amount of cash which the burglars wanted, but which police now say never existed
The Greek pilot then played the distraught widower, claiming his 20-year-old wife had been killed by burglars.
But as police began picking apart his version of events he confessed to suffocating her in her sleep in front of their 11-month-old daughter and staging the crime scene.
‘I really regret this act, I ruined my life and my family,’ he told a judge when he appeared in court in Athens this week, the transcript of which was released yesterday.
Anagnostopoulos and Miss Crouch wed in 2019, when she was 18 and he was 31.
He told a judge: ‘Caroline became pregnant a few weeks after we got married. This child would complete our family and our happiness.
‘Unfortunately, when she was three months’ pregnant, Caroline miscarried, and since then her behaviour had been gradually changing.
‘From that moment on, she started to have aggressive outbursts and explosions towards me.
‘In order to be able to manage this situation, I suggested we visit a psychologist in order to save our family.
‘At first, Caroline accepted and was regular with the sessions, but gradually she began to find various excuses and eventually stopped.’
Babis argued in court that he should be freed on bail so he can continue looking after his daughter with Caroline, an argument the judge rejected
Anagnostopoulos claimed the couple had ‘argued’ again on the night of May 11 but denied he planned to kill her.
In chilling detail, the helicopter pilot spelt out the awful final moments of his wife’s life.
He said: ‘Caroline started shaking her body, to get out of my arms, and I kept holding her tight.
‘At one point, her face was wincing on the pillow. I kept holding her in my arms until she stopped rocking.
‘All this lasted for about five minutes, from the time I hugged her until the time she stopped rocking.’
Anagnostopoulos was branded a ‘monster’ by women’s rights campaigners when he went to court on Tuesday.
They screamed ‘rot in jail’ to him, and said he typified Greece’s growing problem with domestic violence.
Anagnostopoulos claimed he had mounted the cover-up because he could not bear Lydia growing up without either parent.
Now a custody battle over the little girl is looming between her two sets of grandparents.
If Miss Crouch’s mother, Susan, cannot have her, ‘it will be the death of her’, Susan’s lawyer said.
Thanasis Harmanis added: ‘We are trying to see if we can reach a consensual agreement with Babis’s family.
‘If that is not agreed, we will apply for exclusive custody.’
Last night Anagnostopoulos’s father Constantinos said from his home in Athens: ‘For now, we are concentrating on the child. Even now, as I speak, I’m preparing food for her.
‘We will do whatever it takes to have custody of her and hope that we can come to an arrangement.’
Anagnostopoulos is expected to enter a plea to a murder charge when he next appears in court.
He has been taken from the female wing of a maximum security prison on the outskirts of Athens to the male part – where he asked to find work.