Fiona Beal is accused of wrapping her boyfriend’s body in a carpet before building a ‘structure’ to hide where she had buried it (Picture: PA)
A primary school teacher wrapped her boyfriend’s body in a carpet and built a structure to hide it in her back garden, a court heard.
Fiona Beal, 49, is accused of using bark chips, concrete slabs, and planks of wood to try and lead police astray to where she had dumped her partner’s body.
Miss Beal is accused of killing her partner Nicholas Billingham, 42, before dumping his body in their back garden, jurors were told.
A forensic archaeologist said plastic bags, rubble, mortar, polystyrene, laminate flooring, and sections of fabric and vinyl were also recovered from the home in Northampton.
Prosecutors claim Beal planned the killing, stabbing her long-term partner in the neck with a knife in their bedroom, after telling her headteacher she had Covid.
It is alleged a book found when Beal was arrested in March last year, contained a hand-written note saying she had offered the ‘incentive of sex’.
She is said to have got Mr Billingham to wear an eye mask – and the note is said to have amounted to a ‘confession’ to the killing.
Beal’s barrister has claimed the ‘scribblings’ are clear evidence of a disturbed mind on the part of the Year Six teacher, who denies murder.
Giving evidence to Northampton Crown Court forensic archaeologist Peter Schofield took the jury through photographs taken as Mr Billingham’s body was uncovered during a three-day excavation.
Nicholas Billingham’s body was found buried in the garden of Fiona Beal’s house in Northampton (Picture: PA)
It took police three days to uncover Mr Billingham’s body (Picture: SWNS)
He told the court: ‘The information I had was that on the 16th of March 2022 a missing person called Fiona Beal was found in a hotel room by officers from Cumbria Constabulary.
‘Within the room was a journal allegedly detailing the planning of the murder of her partner, Nicholas Billingham, and the subsequent description of the disposal of his body.’
Mr Schofield said an area of interest had been identified by police at the Moore Street property, including a mound covered by bark chippings.
Jurors were shown photographs of the mound in a narrow rectangular area between a fence and the wall of an annexe housing Beal’s kitchen, leading to a set of French doors.
