the times | Tuesday May 17 2022 2GM 21
News
A Greek helicopter pilot was convicted
yesterday of murdering his young Brit-
ish wife as she slept beside their baby in
their Athens home.
Charalambos “Babis” Anagnosto-
poulos, 35, had confessed to strangling
Caroline Crouch, 20, but claimed he
had acted in a fit of rage after she
threatened to abandon their troubled
marriage in May last year.
Faced with compelling forensic evi-
dence Anagnostopoulos had changed
his story 40 days after the death of his
wife. Initially he claimed that Crouch,
He was convicted of two charges of per-
verting the course of justice over his ini-
tial deception.
Anagnostopoulos was sentenced toZACH COOLEY/CATERS NEWS; ANDREW FUSEK PETERS/STORY PICTURE AGENCYPilot guilty of strangling wife and dog
the daughter of a retired oil executive,
had died during a botched break-in at
their home in Glyka Nera, 15 miles
northeast of Athens, but he later admit-
ted he had lied to police.
He insisted, however, that he had
acted in a “blurred state of mind” when
he strangled his wife in their bedroom
after a row, and that it was a crime of
passion.
The seven-member jury did not be-
lieve his version of events and found
Anagnostopoulos guilty of the premed-
itated murder of his wife. He was also
convicted of killing the family’s puppy
and of hanging its body from a banister.life in prison, which is 16 years in
Greece, for the murder of his wife and
ten years for strangling the family dog
— the stiffest sentence yet against a pet
owner under Greece’s revised animal
abuse laws.
“There is no fairer decision after
what happened,” the judge said, dis-
missing attempts by the defendant’s
lawyers to gain him a shorter sentence
on account of his apparent good con-
duct while in prison awaiting trial.
Forensic evidence proved Anagnos-
topoulos’s undoing. A step-counting
app on his phone showed that he was
moving around in the family home at atime when he claimed he had been
strapped to a bed by robbers, and a fit-
ness watch worn by the victim showed
her heart had stopped four hours
earlier than claimed by the pilot.
Despite the evidence against Anag-
nostopoulos, a small group of women
gathered outside the courthouse yes-
terday to support the pilot. “By no
means do I justify what he did,” Evagge-
lia Selekou, 52, told The Times. “But he’s
quite handsome and dashing, and I am
100 per cent sure that Babis acted in a fit
of rage.” Another middle-aged woman
said: “He’s quite sensitive, not the
narcissist they make him out to be.”Anthee Carassava Athens
A
mateur
astronomers
around the
world were
treated to a
rare phenomenon
yesterday — a super
flower blood moon that
scientists likened to
watching all of Earth’s
sunsets and sunrises
happening at the same
time (Laurence Sleator
writes).
Those in the UK
gazing at the sky at
3.30am were able to seethe Moon turn a deep
brick red, a hue created
by a full lunar eclipse,
when the Moon passes
through the Earth’s
shadow.
The event lasted
minutes but the Moon
remained a coppery
shade of red for about
an hour and a half.
The blood moon was
seen across the world,
from Sydney, Australia,
to La Paz, Bolivia.
Blood moons occur
when the Earth blocksBlood moon puts on
a giant global show
Sun EarthMoon- Total lunar eclipse
Occurs when the moon passes
through the Earth's shadow
Moon- Blood moon
Sunlight is refracted by the Earth's
atmosphere, turning the moon red
Elliptical
lunar orbit
31- The eclipse coincided with a
supermoon, when the moon is at
its closest point to Earth in its orbit
Not to
scale2How it
happensThe blood moon rising
above the Arches
National Park in Utah
and at the Long Mynd
in Shropshire, leftthe Sun’s rays from
reaching the Moon. The
rays are refracted
through the Earth’s
atmosphere, allowing
only certain colours to
creep through, with
redder colours the least
affected.
It was called a
supermoon because theMoon was at its closest
position to Earth in its
orbit, making it look
about 7 per cent bigger.
The term “flower” was
also used because it
coincided with the wild
spring blossoms.
The last blood moon
visible from Britain was
in January 2019 but then
the Moon was obscured
in parts of the country
by heavy cloud. This
year the view was better,
allowing people across
the UK to observe the
red hue.
Dr Sheila Kanani, a
planetary physicist at
the Royal Astronomical
Society, said: “In a sort
of romantic way it’s like
looking at all the sunsets
and all the sunrises
happening on Earth at
that particular time but
reflected on to the
Moon.” The next blood
moon will be seen in
November.
A reduction in light
pollution is resulting in
the best views of the
night sky for at least a
decade, according to the
annual star count
organised by CPRE, the
countryside charity.
Concern over rising
energy prices may be
prompting people to
switch off their lights.Charalambos Anagnostopoulos, 35
admitted killing Caroline Crouch, 20