Man fatally stabbed partner and tried to blow up their London home, court hears

A woman was fatally stabbed by her partner before he triggered a gas explosion at their east London home last summer, a court has heard.

Clifton George, 45, is accused of murdering 46-year-old Annabel Rook during an argument at their home in Dumont Road, Stoke Newington, on 17 June 2025.

George has admitted manslaughter but denies murder.

Opening the case on Wednesday, William Emlyn Jones KC, prosecuting, said the stabbing had happened during an argument between the couple. “In the course of that argument he punched her, he then tried to strangle her, and then he went to the kitchen to get a knife, he came back with the knife and he stabbed her to death.

“He was undoubtedly very angry with her, and we will be at looking at why he was so angry. He lost his temper, and in his rage … he murdered Annabel.”

The court heard Rook had been stabbed at least 22 times, including through the heart, before the explosion.

Emlyn Jones said Rook’s body was discovered after the explosion, while George “was found in the back garden, bleeding heavily and trying to stab himself with a shard of broken glass”.

In police interview, George said he had “lost it” when he found out Rook had “lied to me”.

Emlyn Jones told jurors: “I can tell you at the outset that the defendant does not deny that he stabbed his partner to death. He admits that he killed her.”

Court sketch of Clifton George (left) appearing at Snaresbrook crown court in June 2025. Photograph: Elizabeth Cook/PA

The court heard the couple were not married but had been living together for just over a decade.

The prosecutor said George’s guilty plea to manslaughter has not been accepted, and that he continued to be accused of murder. He said jurors would have to determine the reason for the fatal stabbing, including an assessment of their relationship, which was “difficult at times”.

Regarding the explosion, Emlyn Jones said George had opened the valve of a propane gas canister, of the type used for camping and BBQs, in the basement to “try and blow the place up”.

A fire investigator worked out after the blast that George “had tried to flick the circuit breaker switches in the basement on and off, but if this was an attempt to cause a spark to ignite the gas, it didn’t work”.

He continued: “He had left all the gas rings on and lit on the hob – but that also had not been what ignited the gas hissing out of the canister in the basement. In the end, the defendant had simply started a fire in the basement … it was that fire which then caused the gas from the canister to explode.

“The force of the blast lifted the floorboards, shifted the furniture, and caused significant damage to the property and to the house next door. It also made an almighty bang.”

Rhys Sullivan, the couple’s next-door neighbour, recalled a “massive boom, which felt like a mini-earthquake”, and rushed outside with his partner, Harriet Cosby, to check what had happened.

Cosby found George lying on the kitchen floor covered in blood and broken glass, while the roof of the kitchen extension had been blown off. The court heard the neighbours had shouted for George to “get out” of the house, but watched in horror as he then started to stab himself in the neck.

Rook, the daughter of the retired Old Bailey judge Peter Rook, was the co-founder of a London-based social enterprise called MamaSuze, which supports refugee and migrant women with art and drama activities and workshops.

The trial continues.