Fiona Beal, 50, has 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. On Wednesday, she appeared at the Old Bailey for the start of her two-day sentencing by Judge Mark Lucraft KC.
During the hearing, prosecutor Hugh Davies KC read out a letter Mr Bellingham had written to Beal after he had an affair during their 17-year relationship. In the letter, Mr Billingham accepted his faults and described Beal as “kind hearted”, “generous” and “the most beautiful woman in the world”. He wrote: “I promise to never again belittle you or make you feel rubbish again.
“My body, my heart, my love has been yours since the day I met you and will be until the day I die. I love you with all my heart.” In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Billingham’s mother, Yvonne Valentine, described having a Christmas drink with Beal on December 23 2021, not knowing that she was just feet from her son’s body.
At the time, she was feeling reassured by text messages from her son’s phone and concerned for Beal. She wrote: “I shouldn’t have been bothered or concerned about you, should I!! “I remember that the house looked different; the furniture moved, new furniture and ornaments in the front room, which made it.