A Crossrail worker accused of murdering his partner has told a court that he stabbed her more than 20 times before attempting to end his life with a gas explosion.
Clifton George, 45, killed charity worker Annabel Rook, 46, at their home in Dumont Road, Stoke Newington, north London, before starting a fire which triggered a gas canister blast.
George admits manslaughter and arson on June 16th last year, but has denied murder and blames the killing on a loss of self-control.
Giving evidence at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Wednesday, he said that immediately after stabbing Rook about 22 times, “I kneeled down in front of Annabel’s body and I just started to cry, I couldn’t believe it”.
Later that night, George set off a gas canister in the basement before attempting to ignite it, he told jurors.
The defendant claimed this was a suicide attempt and the subsequent explosion “blew me across the house”.
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.
The couple had argued that evening, George said, as their relationship crumbled.
During the row, Rook pushed his head back and he “just lost control”, he claimed.
George told the court: “I attacked Annabel, I attacked her – I threw, I believe, I threw three or four punches at her.
“I know that she fell back because then I was on top of her and I had my hands around her neck, I was strangling her.
“I don’t know what was going through my head.”
He continued: “I don’t recall going into the kitchen, but I would have done because that’s where the knives were.
“All I can recall is Annabel standing there, by the bay window, and she had blood on her chest and on her face.”
Mathew Sherratt KC, defending, asked where the blood came from, and George said: “Where she had been stabbed, she had been stabbed by me.”
The defendant said he had at the time believed he stabbed her four or five times.
He continued: “I remember standing there and I was shocked, and I was like maybe two or three yards away from her, then she started walking towards me with her hands out, I backed away.”
Rook then “fell to her knees with her hands in the air”, he said.
George said he dropped the knife, telling jurors: “I just couldn’t believe it, she was dead, I could see it in her eyes, she was dead.”
He hung his head in the witness box as he described kneeling by her body and crying, where he said he remained for about 20 minutes.
The defendant, who wore a grey suit, said he took the same knife and cut his wrists.
He washed the blood off in the shower and changed into clean shorts and a t-shirt before before taking medication and drinking whiskey, he claimed.
George told jurors: “I just wanted to die, I was in pain, I just wanted to die.”
He then spent five or ten minutes sat on the stairs on the phone to his brother, he said.
During the call, George “started to get really upset” and said he would “get off the phone”, he told the trial.
The defendant said he passed out and then started to cut himself again, before taking a gas canister from the garden pizza oven and using it to cause an explosion in the basement in another attempt to end his life.
Nothing happened at first but as he turned around the explosion “blew me across the house, I went flying, straight across the house, and I landed by the kitchen table”, he claimed.
He said: “I don’t know how long I was on the floor for but the next thing I remember was I was trying to get up but I couldn’t really move my arms and legs.”
George added: “I was just sort of squirming around, my ears were ringing.”
Emergency crews and his neighbour arrived and George was taken to hospital.
The trial continues.
