Woman Promises Boyfriend Sex, Ties Him Up And Stabs Him To Death

Primary school teacher promises boyfriend Sex, Ties him Up and stabs him to death and buries him like ‘building waste' Patrick SawerWed, 29 May 2024 at 3:30 pm BST·7-min readA primary school teacher buried her murdered boyfriend as if he was “building waste”, a court has been told.Fiona Beal had planned the killing of Nick Billingham in meticulous detail, including buying a utility knife in advance and then purchasing a spade and other burial equipment, prosecutors told an Old Bailey sentencing hearing.Beal pleaded guilty mid-trial last month to the murder of Mr Billingham, whose partly mummified remains were discovered in their Northamptonshire garden, four and a half months after he was last seen.She had earlier admitted manslaughter, claiming that she had experienced a “loss of control” when she killed the 42-year-old builder, adding that they had a “coercive” relationship.On Wednesday, the Old Bailey heard that the 50-year-old had lured Mr Billingham into the bedroom with the promise of sex, tied him to the bed with cable ties and stabbed him in the neck. She then hid his body and told friends and family that he had left her for another woman.Hugh Davies KC, for the prosecution, told the court: “This was murder and no less than murder. Whatever was or was not happening in the defendant’s relationship with Nick Billingham … nothing is now contended to justify in fact or law the defendant’s actions in killing him.“Even if the defendant was as unhappy in the relationship as she has claimed, she had multiple options to end it without violence. She could have simply asked him to leave.”But instead of relying on the support of her family and friends to find a way forward without her boyfriend, Beal “wanted the simplicity of a new life without him, the status of a victim of his supposedly running off and the house to herself”, said Mr Davies.He told His Honour Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, Beal had “planned to execute [Billingham] and did, planned and delivered a false narrative as to his having had another affair, run off and ceasing to communicate”.Mr Davies said Beal had “planned for and took elaborate and sustained steps over a period of weeks to conceal her crime, including disposing of his body as if it was building waste in her garden, posed as him in communications with his friends, colleagues and family”.He added: “This was a murder with multiple aggravating features.”In a diary confession later found by police Beal, using the alter-ego Tulip 22, wrote that she had lured her partner of 17 years to his death with the promise of sex, stabbing him in the neck while they were in bed together on Nov 1, 2022. He was wearing an eye mask and his hands were tied with cables as part of a sex game when she stabbed him to the right side of his neck, cutting the right jugular vein. He was still masked and tied when his partially decomposed body was discovered months later.The killer’s journal revealed that Billingham’s last word to her as he lay dying was, “why?”.Beal’s journals recounted the murder in grim detail. She wrote: “I had smoked all day. I had a bath, I left the water in. He had been pushing for sex. I encouraged the bath with the incentive of sex 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.Billingham's 'partially wrapped and partially clothed' remains were found buried in a makeshift grave.“I brought a chisel, bin bag and cable ties too. I got him to wear an eye mask.”She went on: “My last words to him when he asked why was that he was not going to do to [another female] what he had done to me.”In cryptic notes later discovered by police, Beal wrote: “confession . . final farewell . . I’m not a total monster. I know what I did.”Beal was arrested in March 2022 after being discovered at a holiday property near Kendal, in Cumbria, where she had tried to take her own life.After police recovered her ‘Tulip 22’ journals giving a chilling account of how she had planned and then carried out a killing, they excavated the garden.After four days of digging, officers found Billingham’s “partially wrapped and partially clothed” remains, buried in a makeshift grave of breeze blocks, old blankets and timber filled with compost and ten 22.5kg bags of Cotswold stone that Beal had bought from B&Q using Mr BIllingham’s card, and topped off with a plant pot for decorative effect.“It demonstrated nothing but complete contempt,” said Mr Davies.During the hearing, Mr Davies read out a heartfelt letter Mr Billingham had written to Beal after he had an affair during their 17-year relationship.In the letter, Mr Billingham accepted his faults and described Beal as “kind-hearted”, “generous” and “the most beautiful woman in the world”.He wrote: “I promise to never again belittle you or make you feel rubbish again.“My body, my heart, my love has been yours since the day I met you and will be until the day I die. I love you with all my heart.”Beal, dressed in a black cardigan and pink floral dress, listened in the dock – occasionally taking notes – as the prosecution outlined the case against her. Mr Billingham’s mother, Yvonne Valentine, sat just a few feet away, in the now empty jury box, accompanied by her husband, Russell.In a victim witness statement read to the court Mrs Valentine told of the moment, shortly after the murder, when Beal had invited her to the house to wrap Christmas presents and have a drink, while her son’s body lay just a few feet from where she was sitting.Mrs Valentine said: “You sat in your front room with me, having a casual chat with me, having a Christmas drink with me and the whole time, you knew that you had killed my son and buried him only feet from where I was sat.“I felt sad and embarrassed that my son had left you, but I shouldn’t have wasted my energy and concern on you, you had planned it all and at no point have you ever given me the same consideration or thought about the devastation you caused by killing my son.”Addressing Beale, Mrs Valentine went on to say in her victim impact statement: “Nick was my first born, my beautiful little boy with a cheeky smile! Nick was so loved by his family, his friends and work colleagues.“My mother, Nick’s grandmother had to endure the news that you had killed her first born grandchild, just weeks before her own death and I witnessed the impact of this news on her, as I watched my mother’s health decline and die with a broken heart, all caused by you.“You’re a coward. You’re evil. You killed him and then spun a cruel web of lies. You showed no regrets. You wrote ‘I’m not a total monster. I know what I did’. Now everyone knows exactly what you did and they will see you for the evil, total monster you are.“You killed my son in the most heinous way. You made sure he was defenceless and executed him and watched him bleed to death.”Mrs Valentine added: “I want you to spend the rest of your life going over what you did to Nick, the pain and suffering that you put him through when you killed him and the total disregarding for him as a human being when you buried him like he was a piece of rubbish in his own back garden.“I want you to remember that he will always be loved and that he will always be missed. You have faced judgement in court and will now have to face gods’ judgement for eternity.”The court was told that expert witnesses at Beal’s trial had testified that her mental condition at the time of the murder “did not justify a finding of diminished responsibility” and that her substance abuse “may have played a greater than previously thought role in the killing”.Beal will be sentenced when the hearing concludes after hearing mitigation on Thursday.