Primary school teacher admits murder of partner found buried in garden

Fiona Beal, 50, admitted killing 42-year-old Nicholas Billingham, whose partly mummified remains were discovered four-and-a-half months after he was last seen.

Beal, from Northampton, had initially pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter by reason of a loss of control, but denied murdering Mr Billingham between October 30 and November 10 2021.

A jury at the Old Bailey heard on Friday that she had changed her plea.

Judge Mark Lucraft told Beal: “You have this morning pleaded guilty to murder, which as you have no doubt been told, carries a sentence of life imprisonment.”

He confirmed he will determine the minimum term at a two-day sentencing hearing starting on May 29.

As the jury left the courtroom, a tearful Beal wiped her eyes with a tissue.

The teacher was arrested in March 2022 after police discovered the body.

Forensic officers and specialist search teams were deployed to the address before the discovery was made.

The court heard that her actions were revealed through journal entries discovered by police.

Last week, prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told jurors that Beal, “a high-functioning professional”, messaged several people on November 1 2021 – and in the days after – that she and Mr Billingham had contracted Covid-19 and needed to isolate.

The prosecutor called the narrative “sustained and dishonest” and told jurors there is “no evidence” that Beal took a Covid test.

The court heard similar messages were sent from Mr Billingham’s phone from November 2.

Mr Davies told jurors the messages from Mr Billingham’s phone were Beal “pretending to be him” in a move that was “as heartless as it was self-serving”.

On November 8, jurors heard that Beal sent messages to her sisters saying she and Mr Billingham had split up, with one message saying he left because he had had an affair with another woman.

The prosecution said the narrative that Mr Billingham had run off with another woman was “completely false”.

But jurors heard that Mr Billingham appeared to have cheated on Beal previously.

She returned to work “fully discharging her considerable responsibilities as a teacher to Year 6 pupils” and receiving a “sympathetic response” from people who had heard about her break-up.

Her mental health started to deteriorate in late February 2022, the court was told.

The following month, she rented a cabin in Cumbria and sent messages to family members which gave them cause for concern over her wellbeing, prompting them to call police to check on her, the prosecutor said.

In the cabin, police found journals “written in her hand” that showed “a wholly different side to her personality”.

Mr Davies said: “They certainly do contain some unambiguously clear declarations of what she had done. These parts were not just her truth, but the truth. What was this?

“The short answer is that she had planned to, and had, killed him in cold blood. She had purchased a forged handled utility knife in the days before. She had a chisel and cable ties.

“Promising sex after a bath, she stabbed him in the neck when he was wearing a sleep mask and was probably cabled-tied on their bed.”

The prosecutor continued: “Stated shortly, in all these documents Fiona Beal introduces themes of her having been controlled and manipulated in the relationship; of her insecurities having been exaggerated rather than helped by his attitude; of unpleasant things he had done… and this explaining why she killed him as she did.

“She introduces her insight into her own split personality, and an alter ego – i.e. her ‘second self’ – she calls Tulip 22, who is capable of wholly different and darker conduct than her public persona of committed teacher.”

Jurors 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.”

Another detailed her planning for the attack, with Beal writing: “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 journals triggered a police investigation, which soon established that Mr Billingham had not been seen or spoken to by telephone since the afternoon of November 1 2021, the court heard.

“Having manufactured and sustained a cynical lie to everyone she messaged or spoke to about isolating for Covid, Fiona Beal had planned and ensured that she had the house to herself for at least 10 days after the killing,” Mr Davies told jurors.

“She used this time to purchase multiple items to enable her to dispose of his body.

“Acting throughout on her own, she wrapped her dead partner up and dragged him down the stairs, destroying the banister rails upstairs in order to do so. He was 5ft 11in and weighed some 14 stone – even when recovered months later.

“She buried him in the side return of her garden.”

Mr Davies described how Mr Billingham’s “grave” comprised of concrete she had mixed and a “de facto coffin” made of breeze blocks, timber and sheets.

He called it a “major job” which required planning.

The original murder trial collapsed after more than four months when it emerged that a key defence witness was a court custody officer who had conducted welfare checks on Beal in the cells.

Northampton Crown Court Judge Adrienne Lucking KC ordered a retrial after the legal “mistake” in June last year, bringing an end to a 17-week hearing which had only been expected to last around three weeks.

Restrictions were put in place postponing media reporting of evidence given by defence witness Rachel Drummond, without the judge or prosecution being told in advance that she was employed at the court.

Explaining her reasons for discharging the original jury, Judge Lucking said she had not recognised Ms Drummond during her evidence-in-chief and there were no means available to continue the trial and “ensure a fair verdict and a safe conviction”.

Speaking after Beal’s guilty plea, senior investigating officer at Northamptonshire Police, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Pendlebury, said: “We are pleased Fiona Beal has now taken the decision to admit she did indeed murder Nick Billingham and hope that it brings the start of some closure to his family who have faced a torrid time for more than two years, including sitting through the original trial in Northampton in 2023.

“Today’s news will have come as a great relief as they await her sentencing next month.”