Northampton teacher who killed partner 'cannot remember much'

Fiona Beal has accepted killing Nicholas Billingham but denies murder

A teacher who stabbed her partner to death has told a jury she did not remember much about the killing or the months afterwards.

Fiona Beal, 49, said she accepted killing Nicholas Billingham in Northampton in 2021 but denied murder.

She told the court he made cleaning and meal-times a "huge issue" and twice threw a plate of dinner at the wall.

Prosecutors at Northampton Crown Court have said he fell victim to a plan outlined in a "chilling" confession.

It is alleged Ms Beal hid a knife in a bedside drawer and got Mr Billingham to wear an eye mask before stabbing him in the neck.

The court has heard she used carpet, bark chippings bought from a hardware store, soil, concrete building blocks, bricks and planks to bury her partner's body in their garden.

Nicholas Billingham's remains were found months after he was allegedly murdered by his girlfriend Fiona Beal

Ms Beal's barrister, Andrew Wheeler KC, claimed "scribblings" found in a notebook on her arrest were clear evidence of a disturbed mind on the part of the Year 6 teacher.

At the start of Ms Beal's defence case on Friday, Mr Wheeler asked her: "Do you accept that you killed Nicholas Billingham?"

Ms Beal answered: "Yes, I accept that."

Mr Wheeler then asked: "Do you remember much of the detail about the events that happened?"

Ms Beal responded: "I don't remember much at all about when it actually happened or the months afterwards."

Police searched Ms Beale's home after arresting her in Cumbria, the court was told

A friend had introduced her to Mr Billingham, a builder, in 2004, and he was very caring and very attentive at the start of their relationship, she said.

He changed in "small incremental steps", Ms Beal said.

"At the beginning, I remember when were in a flat," she told the court. "I had left a cloth with cleaner on it and it stained a worktop.

"It didn't seem really serious, but then cleaning became a huge issue throughout the years.

"And rather than laughing things off I would get told off."

Describing meal-times with her partner, Ms Beal added: "Everything had to be exactly how he wanted it.

"I couldn't tell you when it started. It just got worse and it lasted 'til the end."

'Being nasty'

Items placed in cupboards had to be placed facing outwards, Ms Beal claimed, while "there were a couple of occasions when he threw a plate of dinner at the wall".

"I lost a lot of confidence," Ms Beal continued.

"It started with joking that I was not doing something and then it just crept into being nasty about it."

The court has heard that the partly mummified remains of Mr Billingham, aged 42, were discovered in March last year, four-and-a-half months after he was seen at a business meeting.

Opening the case at the start of the trial, prosecutor Steven Perian KC said Ms Beal had written in a notebook that she believed Mr Billingham was cheating on her and "had decided to kill him" by October 2021.

Jurors were told the notebook contained a claim that Ms Beal had been spat on and threatened during sex, and subjected to cruel and belittling treatment.

But instead of leaving him, Mr Perian said, Ms Beal formed a plan on how and when to kill him, where to conceal his body, how to cover up and explain his disappearance to others, and how to explain her own absence from work when she killed him.

Mr Wheeler argued earlier in the trial that Ms Beal was guilty of manslaughter rather than murder, having been mentally "broken" following coercive behaviour.

The trial continues.