A primary school teacher has pleaded guilty mid-trial to murdering her ‘cheating’ boyfriend by luring him to their room for sex before tying him to the bed with cable ties, stabbing him in the neck and burying his body in their garden.
Fiona Beal, 50, planned the murder of 42-year-old builder Nick Billingham in her journal, where she wrote under her alter ego, ‘Tulip22’, before buying a knife and a chisel.
After murdering him ‘in cold blood’ at their home in Northampton on November 1, 2021, the ‘highly capable’ teacher told friends they had both tested positive for Covid so she would not be disturbed while she buried him in the garden.
Mr Billingham’s body went undiscovered for four months before Beal’s journals were found by police. Excavation teams then dug up the garden and uncovered his mummified remains wrapped in sheeting in a makeshift grave.
Judge Mark Lucraft told Beal today: ‘You have this morning pleaded guilty to murder, which as you have no doubt been told, carries a sentence of life imprisonment.’
Fiona Beal, 50, has admitted to murdering her 42-year-old boyfriend Nicholas Billingham (who she is pictured enjoying dinner with)
The ‘highly capable’ teacher (left) then told friends the pair had tested positive for Covid so that she would not be disturbed while she buried Mr Billingham’s body (right)
Officers outside the couple’s home in Kingsley, Northamptonshire in April 2023
Beal then spent months using her partner’s phone to message his friends and relatives pretending he was still alive and had moved in with another woman.
She originally admitted manslaughter but denied murder, claiming ‘loss of control’.
Mr Billingham had affairs before and moved out of the home, but the couple had reconciled.
Prosecutor Hugh Davies, KC, told the Old Bailey: ‘Central to the plan was knowing that after stabbing him, if she claimed she had Covid, she would have 10 days to bury him and cover up her crime.
‘And that’s exactly what happened. She was thinking about what time was best to do it, whether he would be snoring, but she knew or visualised it would be by stabbing him ”left to right, down slight right”. And that’s what she did – she stabbed him in his jugular vein in his neck.
‘On 1 November she manufactured a positive Covid test result-all you had to do was complete the NHS questionnaire online app self-report a positive test.
‘There is no evidence she ever did a PCR test. Her actions in the next 10 days are wholly inconsistent with having the exhausting effects of Covid which she was claiming to be experiencing.’
The killer originally admitted manslaughter but denied murder, claiming ‘loss of control’
Beal sent messages to her sisters that she and Mr Billingham had split up, with one message referencing that he left because of he had had an affair with another woman
He continued: ‘She murdered him in their bedroom late on 1 November. The clean-up started as early as 01.07am on 2 November. Using her dead partner’s account, and then hers on Amazon, she bought multiple cleaning products, including for Venetian blinds, a new mop and bucket, ultra heavy duty bin bags, a new mattress, bedding, clothing, wall art and mirrors.
‘This is considered, controlled, conduct that is on the one hand intrinsically practical, and on the other indulgent.’
Beal had written in her journal that Mr Billingham asked ‘why?’ after she stabbed him, the court heard.
Mr Davies said: ‘You are also likely to hear evidence from a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
‘It is for you to decide whether her claimed loss of memory is false – there’s no conclusive test for that. It is for you to decide the facts of the relationship, not experts.’
Beal will remain in custody and be sentenced on May 29 and 30.
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