Fiona Beal changes plea to guilty, admitting murdering her former partner and burying his body in her garden

Former Northampton primary schoolteacher Fiona Beal has today (Friday, April 26) pleaded guilty to the murder of her former boyfriend Nick Billingham.

In a dramatic twist at the Old Bailey in London, 50-year-old Beal changed her plea to guilty just a few days into the retrial of her case, admitting that she had in fact murdered Mr Billingham at the house they shared in Moore Street, Northampton, sometime between October 30 and November 10, 2021.

She had admitted manslaughter before the retrial started last Friday (April 19).

Hugh Davies KC, prosecuting, had earlier told the Central Criminal Court jury that Beal had carried out the “chilling execution” of her 42-year-old partner before burying his body in the back garden of their home while claiming she was off work due to a Covid infection.

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

Inside the holiday home, police recovered a handwritten journal in which Beal had detailed how she had planned the murder and the disposal of his body.

Within the journal, Beal detailed an alter-ego personality she called “Tulip 22” who, the jury heard, was “capable of wholly different and darker conduct than her public persona of committed teacher and parent”.

Mr Billingham’s partly decomposed body was discovered buried under the side return of her terraced house in Northampton.

University-educated Beal returned to her teaching role for several months in the wake of the murder and used her victim’s phone to send messages to Nick’s family, including one on December 30, 2021, in which she texted his mother that he had been to see his beloved Manchester United at Old Trafford.

In his opening statement Mr Davies had told the jury: “Ultimately and unambiguously the evidence establishes that she had thought about it before and planned it. This was a controlled exercise: not a spontaneous reaction but, rather, a chilling execution.”

Beal originally went on trial for murder at Northampton Crown court last March, but after a hearing that lasted almost four months, the case collapsed for legal reasons.

Speaking after today’s hearing, Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Pendlebury said: “We are pleased Fiona Beal has now taken the decision to admit she did indeed murder Nick Billingham and hope that it brings the start of some closure to his family who have faced a torrid time for more than two years, including sitting through the original trial in Northampton in 2023.

“Today’s news will have come as a great relief as they await her sentencing next month.”

Beal, who has been in custody since her arrest in March 2022, will now be sentenced at the Old Bailey on May 29/30.