Teacher lured her boyfriend with sex before killing him

A primary school teacher has pleaded guilty mid-trial to murdering her boyfriend by luring him into their bedroom for sex before tying him to the bed, stabbing him in the neck, and burying him in the back garden.

- JOE MIDDLETON

Fiona Beal, 50, revealed through journal entries discovered by police that she was planning the attack on Nicholas Billingham, 42, “in cold blood” and had purchased a knife, chisel and cable ties.

Beal initially pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter by reason of a loss of control, but denied murdering Billingham, whose partly mummified body was found in March 2022, four months after he was last seen.

The 50-year-old told a number of friends in the days after that she and Mr Billingham had Covid-19 and needed to isolate. She then sent messages from Mr Billingham’s phone saying they had split up because he had an affair.

However, Mr Billingham had been buried in the back garden. The court heard that after Beal promised him sex after a bath, she stabbed him in the neck when he was wearing a sleeping mask, while cable-tied on their bed.

A jury at the Old Bailey heard on Friday that she had changed her plea. Judge Mark Lucraft told Fiona Beal: “You have this morning pleaded guilty to murder, which as you have no doubt been told, carries a sentence of life imprisonment.”

Mr Billingham’s remains were discovered by Northamptonshire Police in March 2022 after Beal had been found in a distressed state at a holiday lodge cabin in Cumbria.