Fiona Beal: Teacher who murdered partner and buried him in garden jailed for at least 20 years
A primary school teacher who murdered her boyfriend before burying him in their garden has been jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years.
Fiona Beal, 50, from Northampton, stabbed Nicholas Billingham, 42, to death sometime between October and November 2021.
After previously pleading guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter by reason of loss of control, Beal last month pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Billingham.
The Old Bailey heard she killed him in “cold blood” before burying his body in their back garden.
Nicholas Billingham. Pic: PA
Mr Billingham’s partly-mummified remains were discovered four-and-a-half months after he was last seen on 1 November, 2021.
Handing her a life sentence on Thursday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said: “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.”
Earlier during the two-day sentencing hearing, Andrew Wheeler KC, defending, told the court Beal had demonstrated “courage” to admit the murder.
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The barrister also said Beal expressed “remorse” in journals she wrote, quoting one entry which recorded her reaching “breaking point” and apologising for a host of things.
It was also heard during the trial that Mr Billingham had affairs.
Mr Wheeler said the purpose for examining the evidence relating to Mr Billingham’s behaviour was not intended “to speak ill of the dead”, but that it was “relevant” to the murder and “does explain how (Beal) came to be broken”.
Fiona Beal. Pic: PA
Beal had earlier described Mr Billingham as making “belittling comments” and calling her “old” and “fat”.
“To say that what happened eventually…was out of character does not in our submission begin to do it justice,” Mr Wheeler told the court.
On the first day of her sentencing hearing, the prosecution read out a letter Mr Billingham wrote to Beal after he had an affair during their 17-year relationship.
Beal buried her partner in a strip of ground to the left of the house. Pic: Northamptonshire Police
Fiona Beal’s garden. Pic: Northamptonshire Police
Fiona Beal’s garden where she buried her partner. Pic: Northamptonshire Police
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.”
A bloodstained mattress discovered in Fiona Beal’s cellar. Pic: Northamptonshire Police
On the day of his death, Mr Billingham had worked on a house renovation before returning to the home he shared with Beal in Northampton.
That evening, she killed him in a “carefully planned domestic execution”, the prosecution said.
Beal stabbed him in the neck and disposed of the body in a shallow grave at the side of their home like “building waste”.
Mr Billingham’s mother Yvonne Valentine last month told Sky News how she had visited the couple’s home in the days after the killing.
She said: “I walked into the house, in the living room, and the first thing I thought was, ‘oh, have you had a turn round of furniture? It all looks different’.
“Fiona offered me a Christmas drink and we sat there… but it always gets to me, because I think Nick was buried in the garden, just a few feet away and I didn’t know he was there.”
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In a victim impact statement, Ms Valentine branded Beal a “coward” and “exceptionally evil and cruel” to send her messages from her son’s phone to convince her he was safe and well.
In February 2022, Beal had been signed off work with anxiety, stress, depression and low mood.
The following month, she rented a cabin in Cumbria and sent messages to family members which gave them cause for concern over her wellbeing, prompting them to call police to check on her.
Fiona Beal’s journal in which she wrote: “Hiding a body was hard.”Pic: Northamptonshire Police
In the cabin, police found Beal’s journals containing a confession to the killing.
They also included reference to her having a split personality and an alter ego she called Tulip 22.
She also described how during the murder she told Mr Billingham he was killing her so he couldn’t do to another woman “what he has done to me”.
The journals triggered a police investigation and Beal was arrested in March 2022 after Mr Billingham’s body was discovered.
All flights were halted at Edinburgh Airport this morning due to an IT issue affecting its air traffic control provider.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the airport later announced service had resumed.
Its post read: “Flights have now resumed following the IT issue with our air traffic provider.
“We thank passengers for their patience and understanding.”
But passengers continue to feel the effects.
A Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Edinburgh was diverted to Dublin after going into a holding pattern over the Scottish capital.
And a live arrivals board on the airport’s website showed multiple flights diverted, delayed and cancelled.
Arrivals board at Edinburgh Airport. Pic: Edinburgh Airport
Morven McCall and Cody Stevenson, both 19, were due to fly easyJet from Edinburgh to Amsterdam on their first trip away together.
Morven told Sky News: “We literally just got into the airport and as soon as we walked through the door there was an announcement that it had been cancelled.
“I was ill over the summer and had to cancel two holidays already, this was our first time going away together. We are just gutted and stressed.”
Follow live: Latest updates as flights halted
Arrivals at Edinburgh Airport. File pic: PA
One passenger was on a plane when they found out.
They said: “We boarded our flight and pushed back on time for an 8.45 (am) departure, then sat for a while before the pilot told us what was happening.
“He updated us a couple of times, cabin crew are brilliant at handing out water etc, and I’m surprised that everyone appears to be upbeat. But then you do wonder how long for, just been told we’re hoping to be in the air in 20 minutes.”
Another passenger told us: “The first news was from the airport announcement as we were halfway through boarding, saying the airfield was closed due to air traffic control down.
“No one knew what was going on. We’d already been delayed a bit before boarding, with no reason. I suspect problems started about 9am.”
It comes after an earlier announcement that all flights had been halted.
“No flights are currently operating from Edinburgh Airport,” the previous statement said.
“Teams are working on the issue and will resolve as soon as possible.”
There was no timeframe for recovery initially, Sky News learned.
It’s understood by PA that the issue was not linked to today’s Cloudflare outage.
Edinburgh Trams also posted on X, writing: “If you’re travelling with us to @EDI_Airport this morning, please be aware that flights are not currently operating.”
The airport urged passengers to contact their airline for the latest information on flights.
An average of 43,000 passengers per day use the airport, which is served by 37 airlines flying to 155 destinations.
A former doctor has been charged over alleged sexual assaults on 38 patients in his care.
Nathaniel Spencer, 38, has been charged with 15 counts of sexual assault, 17 counts of assault by penetration, nine counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, three counts of assault a child under 13 by penetration and one count of attempted assault by penetration.
It follows a police investigation into alleged sexual offences between 2017 and 2021.
Staffordshire Police said in a statement the charges come after a complex investigation by the Public Protection Unit into sexual offences at the Royal Stoke University Hospital, in Stoke-on-Trent, and Russells Hall Hospital, in Dudley.
North Staffordshire Justice Centre
Ben Samples, deputy chief crown prosecutor for the West Midlands CPS Complex Casework Unit and Serious Violence, Organised Crime and Exploitation Unit, said: “We have decided to prosecute Nathaniel Spencer for a number of serious sexual offences allegedly carried out against patients while he was working as a doctor – including assault by penetration and sexual assault against a child.
“Our prosecutors have worked at length to support a detailed and complex investigation by Staffordshire Police, carefully reviewing the available evidence to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.”
Spencer, from Birmingham, will appear at North Staffordshire Justice Centre on 20 January 2026.
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