A primary school teacher has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years for stabbing her partner to death before burying his body in the garden of their Northampton home. Fiona Beal, 50, admitted the murder of 42-year-old Nicholas Billingham, whose partly mummified remains were discovered four-and-a-half months after he was last seen on November 1, 2021. She pleaded guilty in April during a retrial at the Old Bailey, after her earlier trial at Northampton Crown Court collapsed on its 64th day.
At the end of a two-day hearing on Thursday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC handed Beal a life sentence and told her: “Having moved and buried the body in the garden, you then lied to his mother, numerous friends, all his family and yours as to what you had done and where he was.” The defendant had her head down as she left court. Outside court after the hearing, a statement by Mr Billingham’s mother, Yvonne Valentine, was read out in which she said: “(Beal) has demonstrated extraordinary evil.
“Behind her facade as a kindly school teacher, she was secretly planning the cold-blooded killing of Nick. “Once the deed was done, she went to great lengths to conceal his body, dumping him in an impromptu grave like rubbish before carrying on with her life as if nothing had happened.” She also referenced having a Christmas drink with Beal on December 23 2021, not knowing she was just feet from her son’s body.
“Imagine how, on reflection, the revulsion one felt ...
when invite.