A man fatally stabbed his partner and then triggered a gas explosion at their north-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 Stoke Newington on 17 June 2025. George has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denies murder.
Opening the case on Wednesday, William Emlyn Jones KC, prosecuting, said the stabbing 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,” Jones said. The court heard Rook was stabbed at least 22 times, including through the heart, before the explosion.
Regarding the explosion, Emlyn Jones said George opened the valve of a propane gas canister in the basement to “try and blow the place up”. He had left all the gas rings on and lit on the hob, but ultimately started a fire which caused the gas to explode. The force of the blast lifted floorboards, shifted furniture and caused significant damage to the property and the house next door.
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. The couple’s next-door neighbour, Rhys Sullivan, recalled a “massive boom, which felt like a mini-earthquake”. Rook, the daughter of retired Old Bailey judge Peter Rook, was a co-founder of a London-based social enterprise supporting refugee and migrant women.
