‘However hard I tried, I seemed to make you angry.’
Annabel Rook spelled out in a heartbreaking letter how she lived in fear of her abusive partner Clifton George’s temper and wanted to end their 10-year relationship.
Tragically, it was never sent, and was only discovered by police on her laptop after she had been beaten, throttled, and stabbed to death by George in the living room of their Stoke Newington home.
George was today found guilty by a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court of murdering Ms Rook on the night of June 16 last year.
He stabbed her 31 times before starting a fire in the basement in order 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 the charge, arguing he had lost self-control when he punched, throttled and ultimately stabbed his partner.
But by the end of the trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court, the judge, Mr Justice Constable KC, had ruled that his defence could not be relied on, thanks to ‘overwhelming’ evidence of George’s short temper and a pattern of abuse directed towards Ms Rook.
The trial heard damning evidence that George – despite his denials – was an aggressive and bullying partner who was prone to angry outbursts over trivial matters.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said the unsent letter was ‘a heartbreaking description of a woman reluctantly letting go of her dream of a happy life with her partner.
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‘It is not angry, or hurtful – it is expressed as an attempt to be reasonable and accepting that the relationship just isn’t going to work.’
In the letter, Annabel suggested a separation and wrote: ‘A year ago we came to the decision we weren’t making each other happy.
‘Somehow love wasn’t enough. We couldn’t reach each other.’
She added: ‘My heart is broken.’
In 2024, George had angrily turned on Annabel at Glastonbury Festival after getting into a drunken row with one of their friends.
Annabel said in her letter that ‘something inside of me snapped’, and she wrote to her partner: ‘I couldn’t deal with our misunderstandings anymore.
‘I couldn’t deal with feeling like I couldn’t be myself in case I said something that upset you.
‘However hard I tried, I seemed to make you angry.’
Annabel, a respected charity worker who is the daughter of a retired Old Bailey judge, set out that she felt ‘lonely’ in the relationship and unable to be true to herself.
In another note that she had written to herself, she described sitting in the spare room while trying to avoid a bout of George’s anger over domestic chores.
‘You are raging downstairs, emptying the bins with fury, the bins I’ve not emptied, the mess I’ve created,’ she wrote.
‘I don’t want to be around you – you are so unkind to me.
‘It is the third time in three days you gaslight me and shouted me down.
‘Mostly I don’t want you hurting me anymore.’
When she was killed, Annabel had told George they should separate and made it clear he should move out of their home in Dumont Road, Stoke Newington.
Although under no legal obligation, she had decided to give George £50,000 to help him find a new home and she also had hopes that they would holiday together in the future.
George claimed at trial that he was not short-tempered and attempted to place the blame for the stabbing on Annabel, suggesting he had ‘lost it’ when she pushed him in the face during an argument.
But jurors heard the murder was no spontaneous lashing out.
Mr Emlyn Jones told them: ‘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.’
And in a ruling on Monday, the judge concluded that his defence could not be left to the jury.
He highlighted that George had stopped mid-attack to arm himself with a knife, which was a deliberate action ‘plainly inconsistent with a loss of control’ and he found there was ‘overwhelming evidence’ of George’s short temper and bouts of anger.
In the aftermath of the murder, George slit his wrists and then triggered the gas explosion but miraculously survived the blast.
Annabel’s family and friends, including her father, retired Old Bailey judge Peter Rook, packed out the public gallery in court during the trial and were forced to watch as George – in his evidence – attempted to paint Ms Rook as the abuser in the relationship.
He claimed she had bullied him over his childhood traumas of finding his infant sister dead in her cot and being taken into care after violent abuse by his mother.
George claimed the fatal stabbing had happened after Annabel had provoked him with the supposed push to his face.
In the days after her death, there was an outpouring of tributes for Ms Rook, the co-founder of the MamaSuze charity which supports refugee and migrant women, some who had fled domestic violence, through art and drama activities.
‘She touched the hearts of so many,’ her family said, in a statement. ‘She gave her life to helping the vulnerable and the disadvantaged.’
In a statement after the verdict, Judge Rook paid tribute to his daughter, saying: ‘Annabel was a truly wonderful woman.
‘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.
‘Ironically, she was at the height of her powers in her tireless work to help vulnerable women.
‘She had so much more to give. At least now there’s been justice. But nothing will bring her back.
‘We can be sure that her spirit will continue to inspire so many.’
Judge Rook, who gave evidence in the trial and sat through much of the evidence, said: ‘During the trial, it has been almost unbearable hearing the years she herself suffered abuse and then the nature of the horrendous attack.
‘It was clear on the evidence that until the very end, she was incredibly courageous, trying to help others rather than safeguarding herself.
‘She dedicated her life to helping others. She worked in refugee camps and schools. She co-founded MamaSuze to provide creativity and support for refugee women.
‘She lived 46 altruistic years in which she gave so much to so many. We know that it would have been Annabel’s wish that her life should not be defined by her tragic death, but by the rich legacy of love and support for the vulnerable.’
George has been remanded in custody until sentencing on June 9, when he will face a life sentence.
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