Man who stabbed his partner 31 times and blew up their house guilty of murder

A man who killed his partner by stabbing her 31 times before blowing up their home in a gas explosion has been found guilty of murder.

Clifton George, 45, killed his partner Annabel Rook, 46, in the stabbing attack at their north London home after she told him she was ending their 10-year relationship.

After the killing, George started a fire in the basement to cause a gas canister explosion which ripped through the house.

George, who had worked as an electrician on major projects such as Crossrail and the Northern line extension, denied a murder charge.

He argued he had lost self-control when he punched, throttled and ultimately stabbed his partner.

But Judge Adam Constable ruled in a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court that George's defence could not be relied on, due to "overwhelming" evidence of his short temper and pattern of abuse.

The court heard that George was an aggressive and bullying partner who was prone to angry outbursts over trivial matters.

Ms Rook, a charity co-founder and the daughter of retired Old Bailey judge Peter Rook, had vowed repeatedly to leave him.

On Wednesday, a jury found George guilty of murder after deliberating for two-and-a-half hours.

George nodded slightly in the dock as the guilty verdict was delivered but showed little emotion, while friends of Ms Rook broke down in tears in the public gallery.

Emergency services were called to the couple's home in Dumont Road, Stoke Newington, at just before 5am on 17 June last year, after an explosion ripped through the property.

George was found lying on the kitchen floor covered in blood and tried to stab himself with a shard of broken glass while Ms Rook lay dead in the living room.

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On the night of the murder, George had been drinking red wine and got into an argument with Ms Rook about a secret she had been keeping from him.

"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," prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said.

"He lost his temper, and in his rage he murdered Annabel."

Her father, Judge Rook, was in the gallery for the verdict, and paid tribute to his daughter.

"Annabel was a truly wonderful woman", he said.

"One of the world's life enhancers. Above all else, she was a much-loved mother devoted to her two fine sons.

"She was also a superb daughter, sister and, for so many, a close friend."

The court heard George had a history of violent outbursts against Ms Rook.

In 2023, she tearfully confided in her father about George's short temper, saying living with him was like "walking on eggshells" and first mentioning the possibility of a break-up.

(c) Sky News 2026: Man who stabbed his partner 31 times and blew up their house guilty of murder