Teacher sent texts to stabbed partner's family after burying him, court hears
A teacher accused of murdering her partner and burying him in their back garden spent weeks messaging their friends and family, including the man's mother, pretending to be him, prosecutors have told a jury today.
Fiona Beal, 49, denies murdering her long-time partner Nicholas Billingham, 42, at their home in Northampton between October 30 and November 10 2021.
A notebook was also recovered that gave a "chilling account" of how she had planned and killed someone, the court heard.
Prosecutors claim she stabbed Mr Billingham in their bedroom, tied up and wrapped his body before purchasing items from B&Q and burying his body in their garden and then repainting the bedroom to cover the blood splatters.
Jurors at Northampton Crown Court were also told how Mr Billingham, a technician at a garage, had repeatedly cheated on Beal with other women, including having a child with one in 2019.
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Prosecutors claim that by October 2021, Beal was "unhappy with her partner and had decided to kill him."
She was arrested in Cumbria on March 15, 2022 after Northamptonshire Police officers found blood-soaked bedding and a mattress in the basement of the house she shared with Mr Billingham.
Mr Billingham's body was later found buried underneath some bark chippings in the back garden and Beal was charged with his murder.
Nicholas Billingham whose remains were found buried in the back garden of a Northampton house (PA)
Fiona Beal with partner Nicholas Bellingham who she is charged with stabbing to death before burying him in the back gardenSteven Perian KC, prosecuting, said it was "very likely, (Beal) killed Nicholas Billingham during the evening of 1st November 2021 in their bedroom."
She then "moved his lifeless body from the bedroom into the garden" before removing his things to persuade people that he had left her for another woman and using his phone "to send messages to friends, work colleagues and to his mother to pretend that he was still alive."
The court was told how Cumbria Police had been made aware of Beal in March 2022 when a fellow teacher at Eastfield Academy, Claire Mills, raised concerns after defendant was found to have lied about being absent due to "Covid sickness."
She had allegedly told her mother she was attending a residential course due to staff illness.
Beal had instead booked into the High Borrans Lodges near Windermere for ten days, Mr Perian told the court.
She told a police officer sent to speak to her she wanted "some peace and quiet" and admitted to suicidal thoughts in the past.
Three days later she sent a message to her family via Apple message chat group saying "I am so sorry. I love you all very much."
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Police returned to the lodge and inside found a suspected suicide note saying ‘Do not go in the bathroom’.
Beal was found laying naked on her back in the bath with music playing on a mobile device in the background.
Mr Perian said she had cut her wrists with a kitchen knife and was then sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
A blue leather notebook was found in the property which detailed the planning and murder of a man, the court heard.
Forensic officers entry the property with a police dog in Moore Street, Kingsley, Northampton following a discovery of a body in a rear garden (PA)Reading excerpts aloud, Mr Perian highlighted the use of a line from the film, Thelma and Louise: "You be sweet to them, especially your wife. My husband wasn’t sweet to me. Looked how I turned out.”
The notebook continued: "I suppose I ought to explain what happened to get me to this point. He was *** around again (possibly Sophie from GN?). Whenever he was cheating he would up the ante on belittling, moaning and criticising. I have to confess."
Mr Perian highlighted another excerpt where Beal describes how Billingham's actions "fuelled my dark side – I call her Tulip22, she’s reckless, fearless and efficient. Ruthless. I started plotting as Tulip22 after he’d gone to bed.
"I got used to sleeping downstairs and waited for him to go to bed and then got high and let Tulip22 out. Halloween sealed it. He was vile. That night I planned."
The notebook then allegedly describes how, on November 1: "He (Beal) had been pushing for sex. I encouraged the bath with the incentive of sex afterwards.
While he was in the bath I kept the knife in my dressing gown pocket and then hid it in the drawer next to the bed.
"I brought a chisel, bin bag and cable ties up too. 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. I started to believe the cover story."
A body is removed from the property in Moore Street, Kingsley, Northampton following its discovery in the rear garden (PA)Mr Perian told jurors how Cumbria Police officers "read the book and found aspects of it disturbing" and decided to inform Northants Police.
An initial search of the couple's property found nothing, but a second more detailed search uncovered a mattress in the basement and a duvet in a bin bag, both of which were stained with blood.
The court heard Beal was arrested while still in the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and cautioned for murder.
She was transported to a hospital in Northamptonshire and handed over to Northants Police.
A second notebook recovered from the property in Cumbria also allegedly contains Beal's writings.
In it, she allegedly describes an unnamed man as being "argumentative, mean, cruel, belittling, nasty, lying, cheating, gambling, narcist, controlling. Emotionally abusive, Controlling, Verbally abusive, Sexually demeaning."
Jurors were shown images of the walls of Beal and Mr Billingham's bedroom which forensics officers sprayed with a chemical which gives off fluorescent light when it comes into contact with blood.
The wall was glowing after it was sprayed, which Mr Perian said "could be explained if there had been blood on the wall which had been altered by cleaning or mixing with coats of paint applied to the area."
Police outside the property Moore Street in Kingsley, Northants (Anita Maric / SWNS)Images were also shown of the excavation of the back garden, where detectives removed a layer of compost and wood bark and then a layer of concrete blocks. Mr Billingham's body was found underneath.
Mr Perian told jurors how "The body was lying on its back and it was partially wrapped with black plastic with some tape present. These wrappings were secured on the lower legs with cable near to the feet and interlinked plastic ties near to the knees.
"The partially wrapped body was on top of plywood sheeting. The edges of the plywood sheeting overlay weathered gravel, which appeared to be the ground surface before the body was placed on the ground."
He argued "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."
He argues Beal then "carried on with her normal life as if nothing had happened."
Beal denies murder. The trial continues.
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