Fiona Beal Trial: Former Year Six teacher tells court she ‘hit rock bottom’ after moving to Kingsley address in Northampton

A former primary school teacher has told jurors that her relationship with the man she is accused of murdering was “at its worst” when they moved to Northampton.

Fiona Beal, aged 49, of Moore Street, stands accused of murdering 42-year-old Nicholas Billingham in November 2021 and burying his body in their garden.

The former Eastfield Academy teacher was charged with Mr Billingham’s murder in March 2022 after she tried to take her life in a Cumbrian holiday lodge and police uncovered two journals that detailed carrying out a plan to kill someone.

While Beal admits to Mr Billingham’s unlawful killing, she denies murder due to her state of mind at the time. Her defence barrister Andrew Wheeler KC claims that her relationship with Mr Billingham was “coercive” and left Beal “broken.”

Beal appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Tuesday, May 9 after the trial had been adjourned for a week and she was questioned about when she first became suspicious about Mr Billingham’s affairs in 2011.

Beal said: “He had become very secretive with his phone and was staying out more and staying out later.”

She told jurors that she found out about Mr Billingham’s affair with his previously mentioned mistress after she saw text messages exchanged between the two on Mr Billingham’s phone. However, Mr Billingham convinced Beal that this was a mistake and it wouldn’t happen again, the court heard.

Beal told the court that she discovered that her partner resumed his affair with the same woman in 2018 when he would go out more often and not return until 3am or 4am or say he was staying at his father’s house.

The former teacher said that text messages on Mr Billingham’s phone revealed that he had another affair whilst on a stag weekend in Blackpool but she did not confront him about it as she was “embarrassed.”

The court heard that Beal and Mr Billingham slept separately from March 2018 and Beal’s sister invited her to go on a holiday to Thailand that August because she was “stressed” and “needed a break from it all.”

Beal said her partner texted her a lot while she was abroad, saying that he had made a mistake and he had no intention of moving in with his mistress. Mr Billlingham picked her up from the airport upon her return and they rekindled their relationship.

However, in September 2018, Beal discovered that Mr Billingham was still seeing the mistress so she sent him a text telling him to collect all his belongings and to post his keys through the letterbox.

Mr Wheeler asked Beal how this made her feel. She replied: “Stupid and taken for a fool. Again.”

The court heard that Mr Billingham spent around two or three months living with his mistress before he discovered that she was pregnant with his child.

“He was not happy about it,” Beal told the court, “He said she said that she got the contraceptive implant and he felt that he had been tricked into it.”

Beal claimed that Mr Billingham would regularly turn up to the property they previously shared in Compton Way, Earls Barton crying and saying what a “terrible mistake” he made.

“He acknowledged that he hadn’t been kind and he belittled me and said that things would change,” Beal told the court.

Beal said that Mr Billlingham started to see a counsellor and wrote Beal letters begging for her forgiveness.

One of Mr Billingham’s letters read: “I am so so sorry for all the pain, all the heartache and tears I have caused in our lives. I can only beg for your forgiveness. My life is so empty without you.”

Beal told jurors that Mr Billingham, whilst crying, got down on one knee and proposed to her, promising that he would register as living at their Earls Barton home, get full time work instead of working off the books and they would take out a mortgage and get a home.

The court heard that the couple got back together and Mr Billingham moved back into the Compton Way address.

Beal said: “He really made an effort. He didn’t seem to be so obsessed with cleaning and I genuinely thought that this could be a turning point.”

The court previously heard that Mr Billingham’s mistress sent a letter addressed to Beal at their Earls Barton address with a baby scan enclosed.

The letter detailed the mistress’ affair with Mr Billingham and said: “There will be no trust - you will always wonder where he is, what he’s doing and who he’s with… when he says he’s working, playing poker, at the pub, at Old Trafford, out watching football… he was with me every single time, you will never believe him again… The excuses he gave you every time - I know all of them.”

Mr Wheeler asked Beal how this letter made her feel.

Beal said: “I felt like she was taunting me and trying to provoke me to respond. I thought actually I have not done anything wrong here so I didn’t respond to it. Obviously, it was quite hurtful.”

On February 28, 2020, the couple moved to their Moore Street property in Kingsley, Northampton. Beal said this was when she hit “rock bottom” and her relationship with Mr Billingham was “at its worst.”

Beal claimed that Mr Billingham became increasingly angry, aggressive and argumentative. She described fights that would start “unexpectedly” such as when she printed something out and caused Mr Billingham to wake up from his slumber so he berated her for a week about why this was “unacceptable.”

“I felt like I was walking on eggshells and trying not to do anything that might upset him,” Beal said.

The former teacher said that, at some point that year, she contacted her doctor to increase her dose of antidepressants but she could not recall exactly when.

More to follow as the trial continues.