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 âbuilding 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 âbuilding wasteâ, 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 âloss of controlâ when she killed the 42-year-old builder, adding that they had a âcoerciveâ 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: âThis was murder and no less than murder. Whatever was or was not happening in the defendantâs relationship with Nick Billingham ⌠nothing is now contended to justify in fact or law the defendantâs actions in killing him.âEven 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.âBut instead of relying on the support of her family and friends to find a way forward without her boyfriend, Beal âwanted the simplicity of a new life without him, the status of a victim of his supposedly running off and the house to herselfâ, said Mr Davies.He told His Honour Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, Beal had âplanned to execute [Billingham] and did, planned and delivered a false narrative as to his having had another affair, run off and ceasing to communicateâ.Mr Davies said Beal had âplanned 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 familyâ.He added: âThis was a murder with multiple aggravating features.âIn 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 killerâs journal revealed that Billinghamâs last word to her as he lay dying was, âwhy?â.Bealâs journals recounted the murder in grim detail. She wrote: âI 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. âWhile 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.âI brought a chisel, bin bag and cable ties too. I got him to wear an eye mask.âShe went on: âMy 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.âIn cryptic notes later discovered by police, Beal wrote: âconfession . . final farewell . . Iâm not a total monster. I know what I did.âBeal 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 âTulip 22â 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 Billinghamâs âpartially wrapped and partially clothedâ 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 BIllinghamâs card, and topped off with a plant pot for decorative effect.âIt demonstrated nothing but complete contempt,â 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 âkind-heartedâ, âgenerousâ and âthe most beautiful woman in the worldâ.He wrote: âI promise to never again belittle you or make you feel rubbish again.âMy 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.âBeal, dressed in a black cardigan and pink floral dress, listened in the dock â occasionally taking notes â as the prosecution outlined the case against her. Mr Billinghamâs 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 sonâs body lay just a few feet from where she was sitting.Mrs Valentine said: âYou 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.âI felt sad and embarrassed that my son had left you, but I shouldnât 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.âAddressing Beale, Mrs Valentine went on to say in her victim impact statement: âNick was my first born, my beautiful little boy with a cheeky smile! Nick was so loved by his family, his friends and work colleagues.âMy mother, Nickâs 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 motherâs health decline and die with a broken heart, all caused by you.âYouâre a coward. Youâre evil. You killed him and then spun a cruel web of lies. You showed no regrets. You wrote âIâm not a total monster. I know what I didâ. Now everyone knows exactly what you did and they will see you for the evil, total monster you are.âYou killed my son in the most heinous way. You made sure he was defenceless and executed him and watched him bleed to death.âMrs Valentine added: âI 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.âI 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 godsâ judgement for eternity.âThe court was told that expert witnesses at Bealâs trial had testified that her mental condition at the time of the murder âdid not justify a finding of diminished responsibilityâ and that her substance abuse âmay have played a greater than previously thought role in the killingâ.Beal will be sentenced when the hearing concludes after hearing mitigation on Thursday.