Northampton: Murder accused does not remember burying partner

Fiona Beal has accepted she killed Nicholas Billingham but denies murder

A teacher who stabbed her partner told a court her only memories of burying him were "a dragging sensation" and "the body wrapped in the dining room".

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

She told Northampton Crown Court their relationship deteriorated during the first Covid lockdown.

Prosecutors said Mr Billingham fell victim to a plan outlined in a "chilling" confession.

They allege that Ms Beal, of Moore Street, Northampton, hid a knife in a bedside drawer and got Mr Billingham to wear an eye mask before stabbing him in the neck in their bedroom on 1 November 2021.

Ms Beal was asked by defence barrister Andrew Wheeler KC if she had any memory of how Mr Billingham came to be found buried in the back garden under carpet, soil, concrete blocks, planks and bark chippings in March 2022.

She said: "I remember feeling a dragging sensation that I was dragging something. I remember seeing what would have been the body wrapped in the dining room.

"But after that, no... not really much more."

Mr Billingham's body was found buried in the back garden of the property in Moore Street in March 2022

Mr Wheeler asked if she could recall anything about stabbing her partner. Ms Beal said: "No - I thought that I had hit him over the head and that it happened in the bath."

He then asked: "What's the next memory that you can recall?"

She replied: "That I was sat by the back door wrapped in a blanket and I had a cut on my head."

Ms Beal told jurors she had no idea how long she was sitting by the door, and said: "I think it was for longer than a day. There had been a day and a night. I am not sure."

The primary school teacher, who claimed she did not remember "much at all" about the killing or the months that followed, was asked to give details about the period after 2018 when she found out Mr Billingham was having an affair.

Ms Beal said she had decided to let Mr Billingham move back in with her in early 2019 after he promised to "go legit" and proposed marriage.

She told the court on Tuesday: "He really made an effort. I genuinely thought this could be the turning point."

Nicholas Billingham was furloughed in June 2020, Ms Beal told the court

The couple had moved to the house on Moore Street in February 2020 after providing a deposit of £7,000.

"When we first moved in things were OK and then it quickly deteriorated," Ms Beal told the court.

"The pandemic started in the March and I believe he got furloughed by June - it was around that time that things became more difficult.

"He became angry and aggressive."

'Inferior'

Alleging that Mr Billingham had shouted about crumbs being left in the kitchen, Ms Beal added: "He would have a go at me. I would stay quiet."

Mr Wheeler read extracts of letters Mr Billingham sent to Ms Beal, in which the builder promised not to "belittle" her.

She then told the court: "He could say things to make me feel inferior."

Giving evidence for a second day, Ms Beal told the jury how, after her partner was furloughed, she contacted her doctor to ask for an increase in her anti-depressant medication.

"If I wore make-up he would question who I was wearing it for, and if I didn't then I was looking old and frumpy," she said.

Ms Beal previously claimed Mr Billingham twice threw a dinner plate against a wall after making cleaning into a "huge issue" between them.

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

The trial continues.