The best friend of a woman who was stabbed to death by her partner before he blew up their London home has told a court of his “unreasonable flashing rage” and years of abusive behaviour.
Clifton George, 45, is accused of murdering 46-year-old Annabel Rook during an argument at their home in Dumont Road, Stoke Newington, on June 17, 2025.
George has admitted responsibility for her death by pleading guilty to manslaughter but denies murder, blaming the fatal stabbing on a loss of self-control.
Ms Rook’s best friend, Sian Davlin, told jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court that she “felt sorry for” George, and initially wanted the relationship to work, before changing her mind after hearing about his “patterns” of abuse.
“Did you want Annabel and Clifton George to stay together? Did you see it as a relationship that was working?” asked prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC.
“In the first few years I did and like her I thought if he got therapy then it could,” said Ms Davlin.
Later she added: “I did actually like Clifton and I felt sorry for him and I recognised where some of his issues came from so I was invested in the relationship, I wanted it to work.”
She described being told that George had pushed Ms Rook “against the wall and pushed his forearm” to her throat, as the moment she changed her mind.
Ms Rook was punched, strangled and stabbed 22 times by George at their home before he started a fire and caused a gas explosion that ripped through the property, the court heard previously.
Ms Davlin, who works as a refugee immigration solicitor, told the court that she and her husband, Deji Davies, were “kind of like family” with George and Ms Rook and said she knew “more than anyone” about their relationship.
Asked to name the main recurring issue between them, she said: “Clifton’s tendency to overreact about small trivial things and his temper when he overreacted.”
She said George was “insecure” and would often misconstrue jokes and would belittle, fat-shame and gaslight Ms Rook.
Ms Davlin recounted many arguments between the couple where George had lost his temper and flown into a rage between 2015 and 2025.
On one occasion, she asked George to “calm down and stop being so aggressive” during an argument in a London park.
She said he responded by accusing her of stereotyping him as an “angry black man”, the court heard.
“It was impossible to reason with him, there was no way he was going to listen to me in that instance,” said Ms Davlin.
Later that day, she sent a WhatsApp message to Ms Rook saying “it’s good for Deji to see the unreasonable flashing rage anger side too” in reference to George’s behaviour.
In another instance, on holiday in France, he accused her husband of being an “Uncle Tom” for siding with a white person in an argument.
Jurors heard that George often experienced racism and bigotry at work.
Ms Davlin also said that Ms Rook and George would have a yearly conversation about separating, but he would “manipulate” her on each occasion.
According to Ms Davlin, by the summer of 2024, Ms Rook was acknowledging that George’s behaviour was abusive.
“I believed that they were going to break up then … She was saying I need to do this, I can’t live life like this, his treatment is not right, it’s abusive,” said Ms Davlin.
A couple of weeks before her death, Ms Rook left her sister a message after she and George had argued and she concluded the relationship was “not tenable”.
“I fear there will be some more wrath to come,” she said, revealing it is “not a nice place to be”.
“I will get through this and will be stronger for it out the other side,” she said as she signed off the message, on June 1.
Ms Rook, the daughter of 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.
George denies murder, but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and arson. The trial continues.
