Primary school teacher stabbed her boyfriend to death and buried the body in the garden, court hears

A primary school teacher fatally stabbed her partner because she believed he was cheating on her, a court heard today.

Fiona Beal, 48, allegedly lured Nicholas Billingham to bed for sex before killing him and then dragged his body to the back garden and buried him.

Jurors heard that Beal had been plotting the murder for weeks after Mr Billingham ‘spat on her and threatened her during sex’, a ‘chilling’ journal found at her Lake District bolthole revealed.

It 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 wear 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 under carpet wrapped in a bedsheet, duvet and cable ties three-and-a-half months after he was last seen attending a business meeting.

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.

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 

The court heard the teacher carried on working as normal, even going on a school trip to London. But just weeks after visiting the capital, Beal began repeatedly messaging her head teacher to say she was ill.

Following the messages in March, the concerned head teacher contacted Beal’s mother, who revealed Beal had told her she was going away on a school residential trip. The head teacher then contacted the 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 they returned 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.”

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 ten-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.