UK5 min(s) read
Published 06:50 12 Aug 2026 GMT
New CCTV footage has been released showing British TikTok influencer Brooke George with her boyfriend William Treeby on the night she stabbed him to death in Dubai.
George, 23, from Gravesend in Kent, does not deny killing Treeby.
She says that she was defending herself after he punched her in the face, threw her belongings around his apartment, and attacked her.
George is charged with premeditated murder, and if convicted, she faces execution by firing squad.
Surveillance footage obtained by The Sun shows George arriving at McCafferty's, a bar in Dubai's Jumeirah Village Circle, with Treeby, 26, and a friend just after 3pm on June 21.
The group stayed for several hours. Footage shows them leaving together at around 8pm.
According to files seen by The Sun, Treeby was described as 'agitated' and 'angry' at one point during the evening and had to be calmed down by his friend.
Eye-witness statements included in the prosecution's own evidence state that Treeby punched George in the face on the way home from the bar.
Photographs taken after her arrest show bruising around her left eye consistent with the claim.
Back at his apartment, George alleges he threw her belongings around the villa before the confrontation that ended with her grabbing a kitchen knife and stabbing him once.
Treeby died from the single wound.
A toxicology report released alongside the CCTV confirms Treeby was heavily intoxicated at the time.
He also had pending drug charges in the UK, a detail that has not been widely reported until now.
George met Treeby on Facebook.
She travelled to Dubai to visit him after they developed a relationship online. Her first trip, lasting about a week, went well. She described it as 'the time of my life'.
Things changed on the second trip.
According to Detained in Dubai, the advocacy group representing George, Treeby became controlling and abusive.
He only booked her a one-way ticket, withheld her passport and her family and the advocacy group allege she may have been 'lured to Dubai under false pretences for the purpose of exploitation'.
George's mother Thereza said her daughter did not seem like herself the day before the incident.
She said: "She was quieter and not her usual happy, cheerful self, but she did not tell me why."
After the stabbing, Thereza spoke to her daughter on the phone.
"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."
George was arrested at Dubai International Airport in the early hours of June 22 as she tried to board a flight home. She has been held at Bur Dubai jail since.
George does not deny stabbing Treeby. The defence rests entirely on why she did it.
Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, told The Sun: "This is not a case where Brooke denies causing the fatal injury. The question is why it happened and whether she was defending herself."
She added: "The prosecution's own evidence confirms that Treeby was heavily intoxicated, had punched Brooke shortly beforehand, was angry and agitated, and had thrown her belongings throughout the villa."
Under UAE law, self-defence is recognised under Article 56 of the Penal Code.
But the bar is high - the threat must be immediate, there must be no reasonable opportunity to seek police help and the force used must be considered necessary and proportionate.
A single stab wound from a kitchen knife against an unarmed man, even one who had just punched her and was behaving aggressively, will be tested against that standard.
Whether a UAE court considers it proportionate is the question the entire case turns on.
George is a 23-year-old from Gravesend, Kent.
She previously worked at John Lewis and has nearly 100,000 followers on TikTok, where she posts lifestyle content, lip sync videos, and makeup tutorials.
Before the arrest, she was not a particularly well-known figure online.
She is now at the center of an international case that has drawn attention from human rights groups, domestic violence campaigners, and the UK government.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has confirmed it is providing consular assistance to George and her family and is in contact with UAE authorities.
George has been charged with premeditated murder. She has not yet entered a plea.
Her legal team will argue self-defence. The prosecution will argue that the use of a knife constituted disproportionate force.
The new CCTV footage, toxicology results, and witness statements all appear to support George's account of what happened before the stabbing. Whether that is enough to convince a Dubai court to drop the murder charge or reduce it remains to be seen.
If convicted of premeditated murder under UAE law, she faces the death penalty.
She went to Dubai to visit someone she met on Facebook but is now in a cell in Bur Dubai waiting to find out whether the bruise around her eye and the CCTV from a bar in Jumeirah Village Circle are enough to save her life.
