Fiona Beal admitted the manslaughter of her partner but denies murder
By Martin Heath and Greg McKenzie
BBC News, Northamptonshire
A primary school teacher has admitted killing her partner whose tied-up body was found buried in the garden.
The remains of Nicholas Billingham, 42, were found at a home in Moore Street, Northampton in March 2022, four and a half months after he was last seen.
At the Old Bailey Fiona Beal admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter but is now on trial for murder.
The prosecution told the jury she admitted the killing by writing about it in a journal.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC, said Ms Beal pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter – but she denied murdering Mr Billingham between October 30 and November 10, 2021.
Opening the murder trial, prosecutor Hugh Davies KC said Ms Beal messaged several people in early November to say that she and Mr Billingham had contracted Covid-19 and needed to isolate.
He said Ms Beal had sent messages to her sisters on 8 November, saying the couple had split up.
Image source, Northamptonshire Police
Nicholas Billingham’s body was found four months after he went missing
The court was told Ms Beal then rented a cabin in Cumbria in March 2022, where police found journals “written in her hand” that Mr Davies said “certainly do contain some unambiguously clear declarations of what she had done”.
“She had planned to, and had, killed him in cold blood.”
Image source, Google
Nicholas Billingham’s body was found at the couple’s home in Moore Street, Northampton
Mr Davies said that Ms Beal introduced a “second self” in the journals, who she called Tulip 22, “who is capable of wholly different and darker conduct than her public persona of committed teacher.”
The court heard one entry said: “Still my actions haunt me. I sometimes have to catch myself and remember what I did and then remember my cover story – neither seem convincing.”
The prosecution said Ms Beal had purchased a forged handle utility knife in the days before the alleged murder and also said she was in possession of a chisel and cable ties.
Mr Davies’s submission to the court was that Ms Beal stabbed Mr Billingham in the neck as he was wearing a sleep mask and probably cable-tied him to the bed.
The trial continues and is expected to last six weeks.
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