Fiona Beal Trial: Former Northampton teacher ‘confesses’ to Nicholas Billingham murder in notebook, court hears

Former Eastfield Academy year six teacher Fiona Beal has stood the first day of her trial for the murder of 42-year-old Nicholas Billingham.

Beal, aged 49, of Moore Street, appeared at Northampton Crown Court today (Monday, March 13) wearing a black shirt, a black cardigan and black round glasses as the prosecution presented their opening note.

The court heard that Beal and Mr Billingham had been in a relationship for around 17 years and, during that time, he had cheated on the defendant with other women.

Steven Perian KC, prosecuting, said that - by the end of October 2021 - Beal was unhappy with her partner, believing that he was cheating again, and had decided to kill him.

On March 15, 2022 police were called to a lodge in Cumbria after concerns had been raised from Beal’s family and they discovered her in the bath with superficial wounds on her wrists and she had written what read like a suicide note, the court heard. She was taken to Lancaster Royal Infirmary and detained under the mental health act.

Police recovered a notebook from the lodge that contained a chilling account of how Beal had planned and killed someone - but it did not name the victim.

In the notebook, Beal quoted ‘Thelma and Louise’, writing, “You be sweet to them, especially your wife. My husband wasn’t sweet to me. Looked how I turned out.”

Beal wrote: “Everyone has a breaking point, a button that can never go back again.”

“I thought about leaving but the things he said and did fueled 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,” wrote Beal.

Another blue leather notebook retrieved from the lodge contained what Beal described as her own “ramblings.” In it, she wrote: “How I ended up here. 17 years of him being argumentative, mean, cruel, belittling, nasty, lying, cheating, gambling, narcist, controlling. Emotionally abusive, Controlling, Verbally abusive, Sexually demeaning.”

Cumbrian police then contacted the police force in Northampton, who then declared Nicholas Billingham as a high-risk missing person.

Police searched Beal’s property in Moore Street on March 17 twice. On the second occasion, a mattress with blood stains was discovered in the basement along with two bin bags of bedding. The property was declared a crime scene.

Investigators examining the property reported that the walls looked like they had been recently painted and the master bedroom was very clean. Traces of blood were, however, discovered on the base of the divan bed, the floor, the underside of the carpet, a chest of drawers, a lamp and the landing wall.

After a four-day search, police uncovered a “partially mummified” body buried in the rear garden of Beal’s Kingsley home, says the prosecution. The body had been wrapped in a bed sheet and black plastic then secured with tape, multiple cables, plastic ties and a knotted hose pipe. It had been covered with soil, paving slabs, bark chippings and a planter.

The court was shown three CCTV footage clips of Beal purchasing compost, decorative stones and bark chippings from the B&Q store at Nene Valley Retail Park on November 13, 2021, December 13, 2021 and December 22, 2021.

Mr Perian told the court: “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.”

The partly mummified body was later identified through dental records as being Nicholas Billingham.

A pathologist determined the cause of Mr Billingham’s death was a single stab wound to the right-hand side of his neck.

The prosecution claims that Beal then used Mr Billingham’s phone to send messages to his friends, work colleagues and to his mother to pretend that he was still alive.

Mr Perian said Beal told her teaching colleagues and members of her own family that Mr Billingham had left her for another woman and they believed her.

The court heard that Beal then carried on with her life as normal, attending a work Christmas do on December 10, 2021 and then going on a school trip to the Royal Ballet School in London on February 24, 2022.

Andrew Wheeler, defending Beal, made a brief statement to the jury saying that this case is “not as straightforward as the prosecution suggests.”

The defence barrister describes Beal as a woman “of good character” and a “hard working and thoroughly liked school teacher.”

Mr Wheeler said that, while there is “no dispute” that Beal unlawfully killed Mr Billingham, this case is about her state of mind at the time. He said that her relationship with Mr Billingham had been coercive.

“He was psychologically domineering and, over the years, wore her down until she was quite literally broken.”

He said that all the notes that Beal left are clear evidence of a “disturbed mind.”

The trial continues.