Forensic officers at the scene in Northampton following a discovery of a body in a garden (Picture: PA Wire)
A primary school teacher stabbed her ‘cheating’ boyfriend in the neck and buried his body in their garden after claiming she had Covid and needed to self-isolate, a court heard.
Fiona Beal killed Nicholas Billingham by piercing his jugular vein in their bedroom at the start of a 12-day absence from work in November 2021, the jury was told.
After disposing of the body she hid their blood-stained mattress in the basement and repainted the walls, the prosecution claims.
On her return to work she told her headteacher Billingham had left her – and she used his phone to send messages to his friends and colleagues, giving the impression he was still alive, the court heard.
But in March last year she was found by police after suffering superficial wounds and penning ‘what read like a suicide note’, it is alleged. And the court heard a notebook was then found that described in detail the killing of an unnamed person.
‘While he was in the bath I kept the knife in my dressing gown pocket and then hid it in the drawer next to the bed,’ said the notes read to Northampton crown court.
Nicholas Billingham was stabbed in the neck, the court heard (Picture: PA)
‘I brought a chisel, bin bag and cable ties up too. I got him to wear an eye mask. 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.’
After Beal, 49, was found at a lodge near Kendal in Cumbria, police searched her home in Northampton.
The partly mummified remains of Mr Billingham, 42, were found in the back garden four-and-a-half months after he was last seen in a business meeting, said prosecutor Steven Perian KC.
Fiona Beal pictured with Nicholas (Picture: PA)
He said Beal, who taught at Eastfield Academy in Northampton, ‘had decided to kill’ him by October 2021. ‘Nicholas Billingham had cheated on her with other women,’ he said. ‘She believed he was cheating on her again.’
The notebook contained a claim that she had been spat on and threatened during sex and subjected to cruel and belittling treatment.
“I knew I couldn’t let him get away with it. Halloween sealed it. He was vile,’ Beal allegedly wrote.
She denies murder. Her trial at Northampton crown court continues.
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Fiona Beal killed Nicholas Billingham by piercing his jugular vein.