An Athens prosecutor gave Babis Anagnostopoulos, self-confessed murderer of his young wife at Glyka Nera, until 10:00 on Tuesday to prepare his defense, it was reported on Friday.

Earlier in the day a prosecutor for the execution of judgements in Athens executed an arrest warrant for the 33-year-old husband pilot, who confessed the murder of his wife late on Thursday.

On Friday Anagnostopoulos was charged with the murder of Caroline Crouch, his 20-year-old wife and mother of their 11-month infant, after appearing before a public prosecutor in Athens. He will also face a criminal charge of animal abuse for the killing of the family's dog and lesser charges for giving false testimony to the police and casting suspicion on others for his actions.

Vassilis Spirou, the pilot's lawyer, told reporters that his client "said he is shattered by the fact of Caroline's death." Spirou added that his client "feels relieved" after confessing his crime.

Anagnostopoulos had originally told police that his wife was murdered by gun-wielding assailants who had broken into the couple's home. Late on Thursday, he confessed to killing his 20-year-old wife in their house in Glyka Nera after police confronted him with irrefutable evidence and of staging a robbery/murder.

Police briefing

The 33-year-old man told police he staged a robbery that led authorities astray "to be able to stay out of jail with my child," police said at a briefing on Friday.

Police said that he had confessed to the crime, to staging the death and the robbery and to removing evidence from the surveillance camera.

Anagnostopoulos had told police that robbers broke into their house, tied and gagged him by the feet of the bed where they killed Caroline Crouch, 20, his wife of British descent, by suffocation. Police said they had found their infant on the bed next to its dead mother.

At the briefing, police spokespersons described how he had called them at 6:20 am on May 11 to report a robbery and murder. They said they were "puzzled" by conflicting evidence early in the case, including the fact that there was hardly any evidence of a struggle on him, and that the ties on the husband's feet and hands appeared to have left very light marks, given the time he said he had remained immobilized. Police were also puzzled by the killing of the dog, which was found hanging off the balustrade.

The police said they turned their full focus on him after being unable to find evidence of other adults having been in the house. Additional evidence also became available that contradicted his claims, including a missing memory chip on the house's surveillance camera, evidence from Crouch's smartwatch that monitored her pulse, and evidence from both their mobiles.