Teacher, 50, murdered partner and buried body
A primary school teacher accused of stabbing her partner to death “in cold blood” before burying his body in their garden has pleaded guilty to murder.
Fiona Beal, 50, from Northampton, admitted killing 42-year-old Nicholas Billingham, whose partly mummified remains were discovered four-and-a-half months after he was last seen.
Beal 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 yesterday that she had changed her plea.
Judge Mark Lucraft said he will determine the minimum jail term at a two-day sentencing hearing in May. As the jury left, a tearful Beal wiped her eyes with a tissue.
The teacher was arrested in March 2022 after police discovered the body.
Last week, prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told jurors that Beal, “a high-functioning professional”, messaged several people on November 1 2021 that she and Mr Billingham had contracted Covid-19 and needed to isolate.
On November 8, 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. Jurors heard that Mr Billingham appeared to have cheated on Beal previously.
In March 2022 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.
In the cabin, police found journals that showed “a wholly different side to her personality”.
Mr Davies said Beal had promised sex after a bath, and stabbed Mr Billingham in the neck when he was wearing a sleep mask and was probably cabled-tied on their bed.
The prosecutor said she wrapped her dead partner up and dragged him down the stairs and buried him in the garden.
Another journal 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.”
In the journals Mr Davies said 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.
He added: "She introduces her insight into her own split personality, and an alter ego she calls Tulip 22, who is capable of wholly different and darker conduct than her public persona of committed teacher."
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.