Primary teacher lured boyfriend with sex before tying him up, killing him and burying body in garden

A primary school teacher has pleaded guilty mid-trial to murdering her boyfriend by luring him into their bedroom for sex before tying him to the bed, stabbing him in the neck, and burying him in the back garden.

Fiona Beal, 50, revealed through journal entries discovered by police that she was planning the attack on Nicholas Billingham, 42, “in cold blood” and had purchased a knife, chisel and cable ties.

Beal initially pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter by reason of a loss of control, but denied murdering Billingham, whose partly mummified body was found in March 2022, four months after he was last seen.

The 50-year-old told a number of friends in the days after that she and Mr Billingham had Covid-19 and needed to isolate. She then sent messages from Mr Billingham’s phone saying they had split up because he had an affair.

However, Mr Billingham had been buried in the back garden. The court heard that after Beal promised him sex after a bath, she stabbed him in the neck when he was wearing a sleeping mask, while cable-tied on their bed.

A jury at the Old Bailey heard on Friday that she had changed her plea. Judge Mark Lucraft told Fiona Beal: “You have this morning pleaded guilty to murder, which as you have no doubt been told, carries a sentence of life imprisonment.”

Mr Billingham’s remains were discovered by Northamptonshire Police in March 2022 after Beal had been found in a distressed state at a holiday lodge cabin in Cumbria.

After a search of the holiday home officers found a handwritten journal in which Beal explained that she was “controlled and manipulated” in the relationship and that Mr Billingham had done “unpleasant things” to her.

She went on to introduce her alter ego, called Tulip22, who the court heard was “capable of wholly different and darker conduct than her public persona of committed teacher and parent”.

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 court heard she wrapped her dead partner up and dragged him down the stairs, destroying the banister rail upstairs in the process. She buried him in the side return of her garden.

His grave comprised of concrete she had mixed and a “de facto coffin” made of breeze blocks, timber and sheets.

The court heard that Beal was a “high-functioning professional” and messaged several people on 1 November, 2021 – and in the days after – that she and Mr Billingham had contracted Covid-19 and needed to isolate.

The prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC, called the narrative “sustained and dishonest” and told jurors there was no evidence that Beal took a Covid test.

The court heard similar messages were sent from Mr Billingham’s phone from 2 November. 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 8 November, 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.

She also used her victim’s phone to send messages to Mr Bellingham’s family on 30 December, 2021, in which she texted his mother that he had been to see his beloved Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Speaking after today’s hearing, senior investigating officer, 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.”

Beal will be sentenced on 29 and 30 May. She will remain in custody.

Additional reporting by PA