by A primary school teacher beat her partner to death and buried his body in his garden after declaring his love “until the day I die”, a court has heard.
Fiona Beal, 50, admitted the murder of Nicholas Billingham, 42, whose half-decomposed remains were found four and a half months after he was last seen on 1 November 2021.
She pleaded guilty in April during a retrial at the Old Bailey, after her earlier trial at Northampton Crown Court collapsed on the 64th day.
On Wednesday, she appeared at the Old Bailey to begin her two-day sentence by Judge Mark Lucraft KC.
During the hearing, prosecutor Hugh Davies KC read a letter written by Mr Billingham to Beal after he had an affair during their 17-year relationship.
In the letter, Mr Billingham accepted his faults and described Beal as “sincere, kind” and “the most beautiful woman in the world”.
He wrote: “I promise I will never hurt you again or make you feel like trash again.
“My body, my heart, my love are yours from the day I met you and will be until the day I die. I love you with all my heart.”
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Billingham’s mother, Yvonne Valentine, described Christmas drinking with Beal on December 23, 2021, not knowing she was just feet from her son’s body.
At the time, she was comforted by text messages from her son’s phone and worried about Beal.
She wrote: “I shouldn’t be worried about you, should I!
“I remember the house looked different; moved the furniture, new furniture and ornaments in the front room, which made it look nice.
“But all this you were covering up that you killed my son! You moved the furniture to hide views of the garden – why?? To stop anyone seeing where you were buried my son!
“You sat in your front room with me, casually chatting with me, having a Christmas drink with me and all the while, you knew you killed my son and buried him just feet from where I was sitting
“I felt sad and ashamed that my son left you, but I shouldn’t waste my energy and worry on you, you planned and you didn’t give me the same consideration or thought of the devastation. for killing my son.”
She called Beal a “coward” and “extremely mean and cruel” for sending her messages from her son’s phone to convince her he was safe and sound.
She said: “You bought everything you used to bury him with your own money, which I think is diabolical and disgraceful.
“You put him like a piece of trash in his own back yard.
“I want you to remember that he will always be loved and he will always be missed. You are pure evil.”
Sister Holly Shore said: “As a primary school teacher you should have been caring but you weren’t caring for Nick and you killed him instead.
“I will never forgive you Nick. I will never forget Nick.”
On the day of his death, Mr Billingham worked on a house renovation before returning to the home he shared with Beal in Northampton.
That evening, she killed him in a “carefully planned domestic execution”, Mr Davies said.
Beal hit him in the neck and disposed of the body back beside their house as “construction waste”, Mr Davies said.
She covered her tracks with a false story that they had Covid and needed to be isolated.
Similar messages were sent from Mr Billingham’s phone from November 2 in which Beal pretended to be him.
On November 8, Beal sent messages to her sisters saying she and Mr Billingham had split, with one message saying he had left because he had a relationship with another woman.
When she returned to work, she received sympathy from those who heard about the apparent break-up.
Beal’s mental health began to deteriorate in late February 2022, the court was told.
In a diary entry dated February 12, she wrote: “I’m not a complete monster. I know what I did.”
She also listed “memories, messages, acknowledgments, final goodbyes”, Mr Davies said.
By February 28, Beal was signed off work with anxiety, stress, depression and low mood, the court heard.
The following month, she rented a cabin in Cumbria and sent messages to family members who were concerned about her well-being, prompting them to call the police to check on her.
In the cabin, police found Beal’s journals containing a confession regarding the killing.
They also included a reference to her having a split personality and an alter ego she called Tulip 22.
She wrote: “I had smoked all day. I had a bath, I left the water in. He was pushing for sex. I stimulated the bath with sexual stimulation afterwards.
“While he was in the bath I kept the knife in my dressing gown pocket and then I had it in the drawer next to the bed.
“I also brought up a chisel, a trash bag and cable ties. I made him wear an eye mask.”
She continued: “My last words to him were when he asked why he wasn’t going to do (another woman) what he did to me.”
The magazines launched a police investigation, which soon discovered that Mr Billingham had not been seen or spoken to by telephone since the evening of November 1, 2021, the court heard.
Beal was arrested in March 2022 after police found his body.
The police visited her home on March 16 but found nothing out of the ordinary.
The next day, officers found a mattress of blood in the basement and returned on March 19 and discovered more.
Mr Billingham’s mummified body was buried in shifting layers of sheets and concrete.
Mr Davies said: “The ancient Egyptians presented the Pharaohs with their treasure. Nick Billingham was buried in construction waste and his old bedclothes and blankets that he didn’t need.
“He showed nothing but utter contempt.”
Mr Davies added: “Whether it was her ruthless alter ego Tulip 22 or not and whether or not the day was spent smoking cannabis, she planned and killed him in a ruthless way.”
The murder and cover-up were carried out as she continued to “provide quality teaching to Year 6 students as if nothing had happened”, Mr Davies said.
The original trial ended last June when it emerged that the main defense witness was a court custody officer who carried out welfare checks on Beal in the cells.
The sentencing hearing continues and is expected to conclude on Thursday.
