Primary school teacher jailed after murdering boyfriend and burying him in garden

A former primary school teacher, has been jailed for the murder of her ex-boyfriend Nick Billingham. Fiona Beal was sentenced at the Old Bailey today to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years.

The sentencing follows a dramatic twist in the case in April when the 50-year-old abruptly pleaded guilty to the murder of her former boyfriend Nick Billingham, just days after she had admitted the lesser charge of manslaughter.

She admitted that she had murdered Mr Billingham at the house they shared in Moore Street, Northampton, sometime between October 30 and November 10, 2021, and buried his body in their garden.

The partly mummified tied-up remains of 42-year-old were found in March 2022, four months after he was last seen alive.

Prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told the retrial that Beal, who worked at Northampton's Eastfield Academy as a Year 6 teacher, had brutally stabbed builder Mr Billingham in the neck in what was amounted to a “chilling execution”.

The prosecutor revealed that Beal had promised Nick "sex after a bath" before stabbing him "in the neck when he was wearing a sleep mask and was probably cabled-tied on their bed".

The gruesome murder and burial took place while Beal was off work due to what she claimed was a Covid infection. She messaged her friends and also used Mr Billingham's phone to say they had both contracted Covid and needed to isolate amid the ongoing pandemic.

She continued to use Nick's phone for months after the murder to send messages to his work colleagues and family, including one on December 30, 2021, in which she texted Nick's mother that he had been to see Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The remains were discovered after Beal was found in a "distressed state" at a holiday lodge cabin in Cumbria. During a search of the holiday home, police recovered a journal in which Beal detailed how she had planned the murder and the disposal of his body.

The journal - which included reference to a "second self" called Tulip22 - had an entry that read: "Hiding a body was bad. Moving a body is much more difficult than it looks on TV."

Mr Davies had told the jury: “Ultimately and unambiguously the evidence establishes that she had thought about it before and planned it. This was a controlled exercise: not a spontaneous reaction but, rather, a chilling execution.”

The court heard how Beal had purchased a forged handled utility knife in the days leading up to the murder.

Speaking after the admission of guilt in April, Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Pendlebury said: “We 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.”

The retrial at the Old Bailey follows a previous trial at Northampton Crown Court last year which collapsed for legal reasons, with the jury discharged after 10 weeks.