Man convicted of killing charity worker in north London home

A man has been found guilty of murdering his partner, a charity worker, in their north London home last year after a trial that revealed a long history of domestic abuse. Clifton George was convicted by a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court for the killing of 46-year-old Annabel Rook on the night of June 16.

George stabbed Rook 31 times in the living room of their home on Dumont Road in Stoke Newington. Following the attack, he slit his own wrists and started a fire in the basement, triggering a gas canister explosion that ripped through the house. George survived the blast.

During the four-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence of George's abusive behavior throughout the couple's ten-year relationship. The court heard that Rook, the daughter of retired Old Bailey judge Peter Rook, had lived in fear of her partner's temper. A poignant, unsent letter written by Rook was discovered on her laptop by police. In it, she described a relationship where she felt unable to be herself and suggested a separation. "However hard I tried, I seemed to make you angry," she wrote.

Further notes described Rook hiding in a spare room to avoid George's anger over domestic chores. Friends and family...