A primary school teacher fatally stabbed the partner she believed was cheating on her after luring him to bed for sex, then dragged his body to the back garden and buried him, a court heard today.
Jurors heard Fiona Beal began plotting the murder weeks before the killing after Nicholas Billingham ‘spat on me and threatened me during sex’, a ‘chilling’ journal found at her Lake District bolthole revealed.
The book detailed how the victim’s behaviour allegedly fuelled Beal’s ‘dark side’ – an alter ego she called Tulip22 who was ‘reckless, fearless and efficient’ – and charts how she persuaded Mr Billingham to don an eye mask before she knifed him.
The court heard the Year 6 teacher killed and disposed of the 42-year-old in November 2021 after phoning in sick with Covid.
Builder Mr Billingham’s body was discovered wrapped in a bedsheet, duvet and cable ties under carpet, three-and-a-half months after he was last seen attending a business meeting.
Fiona Beal (left) is accused of stabbing her partner Nicholas Billingham (right) to death after luring him to bed for sex
Mr Billingham’s remains were found buried in the back garden of her address in Northampton
Prosecutor Steven Perian KC said Mr Billingham had cheated on Beal with other women during their long term relationship.
‘Nicholas Billingham had left the defendant on a few occasions but always returned to her and she accepted him’, he said.
‘One of the women he slept with became pregnant and gave birth to his child.’
Mr Perian said that by the end of October 2021, Beal had resolved to kill Mr Billingham.
‘She believed he was cheating on her again’, the prosecutor said.
‘Instead of leaving him, she worked out a plan on how and when to kill him, where to conceal his body, how to cover up and explain his disappearance to others and to explain her own absence from work when she killed him.’
Jurors were told the murder is likely to have taken place on November 1 in their Northampton bedroom, which was then repainted afterwards.
Later that month, Beal returned to work following her supposed isolation for Covid and told her headteacher that Billingham had left her, Mr Perian said.
Mr Billingham (pictured), a builder, is thought to have been killed in November 2021 by his partner
Jurors at Northampton Crown Court (pictured) were told that the defendant believe Mr Billingham was cheating on her
The court heard the teacher carried on working as normal, even going on a school trip to London. But just weeks after the February excursion to the capital, Beal began repeatedly messaging her headteacher to say she was ill.
Following the messages that March, the concerned headteacher contacted Beal’s mother, who revealed Beal had told her she was going away on a school residential trip. The headteacher then contacted police to report her missing.
Cumbrian officers traced her to an address she had rented near Kendal, but Beal reassured an officer that she just wanted some ‘peace and quiet’ and did not wish for her family to know her exact whereabouts.
The officer relayed that message to Beal’s mother, but three days later colleagues were sent back to the lodge after Beal sent her family a message saying: ‘I’m so sorry. I love you all very much.’
Officers gained entry to the lodge and found what appeared to be a suicide note, before discovering Beal naked in the bath with superficial wounds to her wrists.
Beal was taken to the local hospital and detained under the Mental Health Act, jurors were told.
Northampton Crown Court was told police also recovered a notebook from the holiday lodge and found in it a ‘chilling account of how she had planned and killed someone but it did not contain the name of the person she had killed’, the prosecutor said.
The Cumbrian force notified colleagues in Northampton and officers were sent to search Beal’s address. A cursory initial search of the property revealed nothing suspicious, but a second, detailed, search uncovered a bloody mattress and duvet in the basement, and ‘freshly-laid bark in the garden’.
Northamptonshire Police asked for Beal to be arrested on suspicion of murder. Mr Billingham’s iPhone was then found at the holiday lodge during a search.
Jurors were read extracts of the notebook found at the holiday lodge, which referred to cult 90s film Thelma and Louise, starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon.
Beal wrote: ‘Everything changed last year. There’s a quote from ‘Thelma and Louise’ that feels appropriate, ‘Thelma: ‘You be sweet to them, especially your wife. My husband wasn’t sweet to me.’
Police and forensics officers at the home of Fiona Beal, where the body of Mr Billingham was found buried in the garden
Prosecutors allege Beal kept detailed notes about the murder and disposing the body
‘I suppose I ought to explain what happened to get me to this point. My mental health had been deteriorating. He was f****** around again. Whenever he was cheating he would up the ante on belittling, moaning and criticising.’
The journal continued: ‘Ok here goes. October 2021. He spat on me and threatened me during sex.
‘I started plotting as Tulip22 after he’d gone to bed. I could no longer sleep in the bed due to my breathing being too loud or I moved too much or I was snoring or etc etc. I would have to go downstairs after sex and even when I was unwell.
‘I got used to sleeping downstairs and waited for him to go to bed and then got high and let Tulip22 out. I knew I couldn’t let him get away with it.’
The book detailed how planning of the crime started after Halloween, with Beal realising coronavirus rules meant she would have a ‘guaranteed 10 day isolation period from positive symptoms’.
Beal wrote that she encouraged ‘him’ to have a bath ‘with the incentive of sex afterwards’, and hid the knife in her bedside draw while he was bathing.
She then wrote: ‘I got him to wear an eye mask.
‘It was harder than I thought it would be. Hiding a body was bad. Moving a body is much more difficult than it looks on TV.’
The court heard the body was found underneath a ‘mound’ containing ‘layers upon layers’ of bark, soil, paving slabs and various wrappings.
Mr Perian added: ‘The prosecution say from the evidence gathered that it is very likely that it took the defendant an extended period of time in undertaking the project to conceal his body in the garden.’
The court heard Mr Billingham’s ‘partly mummified’ body was identified through dental records. A pathologist concluded the cause of death was due to a single stab wound to the right side of the neck, cutting the jugular vein.
The trial continues.
DailyMail
