Brooke George was arrested in the early hours of 22 June in Dubai and charged with premeditated murder after the stabbing of her boyfriend. The 23-year-old from Gravesend, Kent, now faces execution under UAE laws if convicted, a prospect that turns a custody case into a high-stakes legal fight. Bill Treeby
Thereza George on Brooke George
Thereza George said: "After Brooke returned to Dubai for the second time, the dynamic between them had clearly changed." She added: "The day before the incident, she did not seem like herself. She was quieter and not her usual happy, cheerful self, but she did not tell me why."
Thereza George also said: "That evening they went to a bar in Dubai. When I spoke to Brooke right after the incident, she was absolutely terrified. I have never seen my daughter so frightened in my life. She was crying uncontrollably. I could see that one of her eyes was badly swollen and was beginning to close."
Detained in Dubai and the charge
Detained in Dubai said Brooke George claimed she grabbed a knife in self defence during a violent attack by her partner in the UAE. Detained in Dubai said she claimed her partner became increasingly controlling and abusive on their second trip to Dubai, punched her, withheld her passport and attacked her again at their apartment. Brooke George said she feared for my life and acted in self defence.
The same account says George alleged being forced to strip naked in front of male officers at Bur Dubai Police Station without a female officer present, and she described that treatment as "deeply humiliating and distressing". Those allegations sit alongside the murder charge, leaving the case to be tested in court as a dispute over intent and self-protection rather than a simple account of a single violent incident.
Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said it was supporting a British woman detained in the UAE and her family. Radha Stirling, the chief executive of Detained in Dubai, has framed the case as a domestic violence matter, while George remains charged with premeditated murder in Dubai.
George had been on her first visit to Dubai when she described it as "the time of my life" and had previously worked for John Lewis. The immediate issue is whether UAE authorities treat the stabbing as murder with intent or accept the self-defence account advanced by Detained in Dubai, because that distinction carries the difference between a custodial case and a sentence that could end in execution.
