Teacher only recalls ‘dragging sensation’ while burying boyfriend she ‘murdered’ as she was smoking 10 joints a day
One TEACHER can only recall feeling “sluggish” as he buried the boyfriend she murdered because she smoked 10 joints a day, a court has heard.
Fiona Beal, 49, is said to have stabbed 42-year-old Nicholas Billingham at her Northampton home after she found out he was having an affair.
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She then buried him in the back garden after wrapping him in garbage bags and a rug, jurors were told.
Four months later, his mummified remains were discovered with an eye mask that read “This is my face after.”
testimony at Northampton Beal told Crown Court today she had no memory of killing Nicholas.
She also claimed that her only memories of the burial of his remains were “a sluggish feeling” and “the sight of the body that would have been wrapped up in the dining room.”
Beal said she was Smoking “quite a lot” of cannabis in the run-up to the kill.
When asked about the amount, she added, “If I wasn’t working… maybe 10 joints a day. About £50 a week.”
Nicholas’ body was discovered when police uncovered a notebook after Beal attempted suicide months later, jurors said.
There was a “terrifying account of how she planned and killed someone, but didn’t include the name of the person who killed her.”
Beal today told prosecutor Steven Perian KC not to call it a “confession book” when asked about her sex life with Nicholas.
She told jurors that over the 17 years it had “changed a lot” that her partner “wanted more extreme things” and spat at her.
The teacher also claimed she was “forced” to have sex in mid-October 2021.
When asked why she didn’t report the alleged incident, Beal replied, “I felt trapped. I had no more self-confidence.”
“I didn’t want to tell anyone.”
The jury was told that Beal killed Nicholas in her bedroom on November 1, 2021, then wrapped his body and buried it in the garden.
She then allegedly painted and cleaned the bedroom where the murder took place before telling people he left her for another woman.
The court learned that Beal used his phone to send messages to friends and work colleagues, pretending the contractor was still alive.
Jurors heard it included a message to his mother and others claiming he had contracted Covid and to a couple whose home he was renovating to cover their tracks.
In March last year she was discovered with superficial wounds at a lodge in the Lake District and taken to a local hospital.
Officers then visited Beal’s home, where they found a bloodied mattress in the basement.
Part of the back garden was also excavated, revealing human remains that were “partly wrapped and partly clothed,” it said.
A cause for Death It was a single stab wound on the right side of Nicholas’ neck, severing the carotid artery.
The court was told that Beal admits to unlawfully killing Nicholas but denies the murder due to her mental state at the time.
The process goes on.
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