Fiona Beal had the ‘courage’ to plead guilty to murder – defence barrister

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Primary school teacher Fiona Beal had the “courage” to plead guilty to the murder of her partner, her defence barrister has told a court.

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.

Beal stabbed her partner in the neck and buried him in a side passage outside the house they shared before pretending he had left her.

As part of the cover-up, she sent messages from Mr Billingham’s phone and convinced his family that he was safe and happy.

On the second day of Beal’s sentencing hearing, Andrew Wheeler KC, defending, told the court that revisions to the prosecution case before trial proceedings started at the Old Bailey impacted expert evidence which had supported Beal’s defence to the murder charge.

Mr Wheeler said: “Ms Beal as the court knows has had the courage shortly after the change in evidential circumstances to enter a plea to murder which as the court knows happens extremely rarely.”

He also told the court that Beal cannot remember “any” of the details of the attack, and that there is expert evidence which supports her “amnesia” as “genuine”.

The barrister said Beal expressed “remorse” in journals she wrote, quoting one entry which recorded her reaching a “breaking point” and apologising for a host of things.

She wrote: “I’m sorry for a lot. I’m sorry I didn’t leave him. I’m sorry I let him rip my self-esteem, self-worth, apart. I’m sorry I let him control me. I’m sorry for taking him back. I’m sorry I’m weak. I’m sorry for what I did.”

Mr Wheeler said the purpose for examining the evidence relating to Mr Billingham’s behaviour was not intended “to speak ill of the dead” nor to be “disrespectful” to him or his family, some of whom were sitting in the well of the court for the hearing.

The barrister submitted that the background of Mr Billingham’s behaviour towards Beal was “relevant” to the murder and “does explain how (Beal) came to be broken”.

Beal said her relationship with Mr Billingham was at first “loving and caring” but “became progressively less so”, Mr Wheeler told the court.

“Nick would then make belittling comments about me”, she said.

“He called me old…and fat. This happened frequently.”

She described him having affairs with women and gambling.

Mr Wheeler said there were a series of events which led to “something never contemplated” – the attack.

“To say that what happened eventually…was out of character does not in our submission begin to do it justice,” he told the court.

Of her character, Mr Wheeler read out statements by friends and colleagues of Beal which refer to her in “glowing” terms.

Her best friend, Hannah Bonham, said she was “totally shocked” when the news broke about Mr Billingham’s death.

“The Fiona I know hasn’t got a violent bone in her body,” she said, adding that, if Beal did do it, something “really bad” must have happened and she must not have been in her right mind.

A headteacher at a school Beal worked at described her as “well liked by everybody” and a “valued” member of the school community.

Mr Wheeler referred to his client as “a person who had always been spoken about in glowing terms by everyone who knew her both professionally and socially”.

He asked the court to take all things into consideration when passing sentence.

Beal, from Northampton, faces life in prison when she is sentenced by Judge Mark Lucraft KC on Thursday afternoon.