Primary teacher made partner wear eye mask before killing him & burying him in garden after ‘he made kinky sex demands’
A PRIMARY school teacher killed her boyfriend then buried him in the garden after he allegedly made sex demands, a court heard today.
Fiona Beal, 49, got Nicholas Billingham, 42, to wear an eye mask before she stabbed him in the neck in their bedroom in 2021.
Beal denies murder but admits manslaughter, claiming she had been mentally “broken” by his coercive behaviour.
Giving evidence at Northampton Crown Court, Beal said Mr Billingham frequently demanded rough sex.
Asked by her barrister Andrew Wheeler KC about her partner, she said he became “argumentative” during the Covid lockdowns and pushed for “oral sex”.
She said: “I was finding things harder as I know I contacted the doctor.
“I did ask for an increase in my antidepressants at the time.
“[Mr Billingham] was much more argumentative. If I wore make-up he would question who I was wearing it for, or if I didn’t he’d call me old and frumpy.
“If I got new clothes to try and be up to date then he’d criticise that.
“I was sleeping downstairs most of the time because he said my breathing was too loud and that I was snoring.”
She continued: “He’d complain if I worked in the evening. Sometimes I’d get up at 4am so I could get it done before starting work.
“He’d continue to be obsessive about cleaning and tidiness.
“If I got message alerts, he’d shout at me and tell me I should put my phone on silent.”
Describing the couple’s sexual relationship, Beal claimed it was “always on his terms”.
“He would push for oral sex a lot and wanted anal sex as well,” she said.
“He would often hold my head because he thought it was funny as he knew I didn’t like that.”
When asked about Mr Billingham’s affair with Andria Farden, whom he fathered a child with, Beal said she was left feeling “embarrassed”.
“He just said it was a mistake and that it wouldn’t happen again,” she added.
“There had already been an affair previous to that. It wasn’t that surprising, he just convinced me that it was a mistake.”
‘ANGRY AND AGGRESSIVE’
Beal told jurors that in early 2018, her boyfriend had been “going out more often”, claiming he’d joined a poker team at the pub and was “staying at his dad’s a lot”.
When he went on a stag weekend to Blackpool, she allegedly read his messages and was “embarrassed” by what she found.
“He did confirm that he was seeing someone,” she said.
“He was deliberating on whether he should move out but he was still going and meeting her.
“He was texting a lot saying that he’d made a mistake and that he still loved me and that he wasn’t going to move in with Andria.
“Within only a matter of weeks he said he was going out and that he was going to a guy called Matt’s and something just didn’t ring true.”
Beal said she read more messages between the pair when she found Mr Billingham’s Apple watch at home.
She told the jury: “Stupid. I’d been taken for a fool. I tried ringing him. I tried ringing her.
“Neither would answer. I sent a text message something along the lines of, ‘I know you’re back with Andria’.”
‘WALKING ON EGGSHELLS’
Despite the affair, he moved in with Beal and they bought their first home together.
She said: “He proposed to me. When we first moved in things were ok and then it quickly deteriorated.
“The pandemic started in the March and I believe he got furloughed in the June and it was around then that things got difficult.
“He became more angry and aggressive. I didn’t know really what might happen.
“Whenever I complained about the way he treated me he said, ‘I don’t hit you’ but it always felt like it could happen, it could get physical.
“It could change quite quickly. It could be fine and then we’d go out in the car and another driver would annoy him and then he would become quite aggressive.
“If anything he got worse. There were times where he’d say I wasn’t closing the back door properly and he’d demonstrate how to close the door properly.
“I felt like I was walking on eggshells and trying to not do anything that might upset him.”
Beal is said to have used carpet, bark chippings, soil and building materials to bury his body at their Northampton home.
It lay undiscovered for four-and-a-half months.
The trial, which has been extended by another month, continues.