A 23-year-old British woman from Kent, Brooke George, has been arrested in Dubai and charged with murdering a 26-year-old man she met online. British reports say she was detained at Dubai airport on June 22 while trying to board a flight back to the United Kingdom. If convicted, she could face the death penalty in the United Arab Emirates. The man is believed to be William Tribby, also from Kent.
According to George’s family and the rights group Detained in Dubai, she met Tribby on Facebook and traveled with him to Dubai. She told relatives that he seemed “very nice” on the first trip, but on the second, his behavior changed, he became controlling, and he allegedly took her passport. Family members say she later discovered the return ticket booked for her was one way only.
George’s account, relayed to British media through her family and the advocacy group, says that after a night at a pub in the Jumeirah Village area, Tribby was drunk and attacked her in a car, and the violence continued after they returned to the apartment. Her family says she called them crying, frightened, and with visible facial injuries. They say she went back to the apartment only to retrieve her passport, was attacked again, feared for her life, grabbed a kitchen knife nearby, and stabbed him. Tribby died of his injuries.
Detained in Dubai chief executive Radha Stirling said authorities should examine whether George was a domestic abuse victim rather than only a murder suspect. She said, “She reached for a knife after being assaulted and punched in the face,” and urged officials to treat her as “a survivor of violence” while investigating. The group is also calling for bail and for digital evidence from Tribby’s phone, computers, and communications to be reviewed. George remains accused of murder, while the full circumstances are still being investigated.
