Fiona Beal has confessed she killed her boyfriend, but has denied murder (Image: SWNS)
A primary teacher killed her “coercive” boyfriend and buried him in the garden after he demanded rough sex, a court heard yesterday (Wednesday, May 9). Fiona Beal, 49, got Nicholas Billingham, 42, to wear an eye mask before she stabbed him in the neck in their bedroom.
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 demanded rough sex.
Asked by her barrister Andrew Wheeler KC about Mr Billingham, she said he became “argumentative” during the Covid lockdown 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 anti-depressants at the time.
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Nicholas Billingham was found buried in the couple’s back garden (Image: SWNS)
“He was much more argumentative. If I wore makeup he would question who I was wearing it for. Or if I didn’t he’d call me old and frumpy.
“Or 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.
“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 added: “It was always on his terms. He would push for oral sex a lot and wanted anal sex as well.
“He would often hold my head. He would hold my head because he thought it was funny because he knew I didn’t like that.”
When asked about Mr Billingham’s affair with Andria Farden, who he fathered a child with, Beal said she was left feeling “embarrassed.”
The body being removed from the house by forensic officers (Image: SWNS)
She said: “He just said it was a mistake and that it wouldn’t happen again. There had already been an affair previous to that.
“It wasn’t that surprising, he just convinced me that it was a mistake.
“Early 2018. He’d been going out more often. He said he’d joined some poker team at the pub and he was suddenly saying he was staying at his dad’s a lot.
“He’d gone on a stag weekend to Blackpool and I read messages. I think I was a bit embarrassed about it.
“I believe it was about the March time as he was staying out more and more. He did confirm that he was seeing someone.
“He was deliberating on whether 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.
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Fiona Beal believed she was “at risk of physical sexual harm” from her boyfriend Nicholas Billingham (Image: SWNS)
“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.”
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 4-and-a-half months.
The trial, which has been extended by another month, continues.
