A MONSTER who stabbed a mum-of-two to death before wrecking their home in a gas blast has been found guilty of murder.
Clifton George stabbed Annabel Rook, 46, to death during a row at their home in Stoke Newington, North London, on June 17, 2025.
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Pictures show the aftermath of a gas blast at the centre of a murder trial Credit: PA
Annabel Rook was discovered stabbed to death in the home Credit: PA
Jurors heard Annabel had told George, 45, to leave as their relationship began to fall apart.
After slaughtering the judge’s daughter, George hatched a grisly plan to kill himself and “explode the house”.
He started a fire by setting a gas cannister alight and triggering “an enormous explosion”.
George was found in the back garden “bleeding heavily and trying to stab himself with a shard of broken glass”.
Clifton George allegedly triggered a blast in the basement of the family home Credit: PA
Floorboards were left up and furniture moved in the explosion Credit: PA
He said his wife was inside the house but told emergency crews she was dead.
When asked how he knew, he replied: “Because I killed her.”
George, who admitted responsibility for Annabel’s death, has now been found guilty of murder following a trial.
Pictures shown to the jury revealed the aftermath of the blast at the family home.
One image shows the ceiling collapsed in one room where the explosion tore through the house.
Floorboards were also ripped up in other rooms and furniture moved as the blast caused “significant damage”.
George allegedly started by lighting paper on the kitchen hob before carrying it to the basement when a propane gas camping canister was situated.
Neighbours were woken by a “massive boom which felt like a mini-earthquake”, it was said.
Neighbours said the blast was like a ‘mini earthquake’ Credit: PA
George has denied murder
George was found in the back garden “bleeding heavily and trying to stab himself with a shard of broken glass”, jurors were told.
He said his wife was inside the house but told emergency crews he knew she was dead.
When asked how he knew she was dead, he replied: “Because I killed her.”
Annabel, who was the co-founder of a London-based social enterprise called MamaSuze, was found inside with “many” stab wounds.
Annabel had allegedly asked George to leave the family home Credit: PA
She was discovered with stab wounds Credit: Facebook
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said: “On the night of June 16 and 17 last year, the defendant argued with his partner Annabel Rook.
“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.”
In a police interview, George said he “lost it” when he found out Annabel had “lied to me”, jurors were told.
The court heard the couple never married but had been living together for just over a decade.
Mr Emlyn Jones said: “In the summer of 2025 it had broken down to the extent that they were heading towards a break-up.
“Annabel had told the defendant that he had to leave.
“The evidence of their relationship in the last few years of Annabel’s life will come in the form of evidence from her family, and from their friends, but also from messages and notes recovered from their telephones, which provide an accurate and contemporaneous record of what was going on as their relationship deteriorated, and how they both felt about it.”
George will be sentenced at a later date.
