Killed the girlfriend: – More difficult than I thought

A primary school teacher from Northampton, England, has admitted killing his own partner, after his partially mummified remains were discovered four and a half months after he was last seen.

Now Beal appears in court where notes from her diary have become central.

She is accused of stabbing her 42-year-old boyfriend Nicholas Billingham to death “in cold blood” before burying his body in their garden. Several media outlets, including Sky News, have covered the trial.

At the start of the trial last week, the 50-year-old pleaded guilty to “murder in the heat of the moment” but denied planning the murder.

Buried his wife alive – then she fled

– Haunts me

In court on Thursday this week, however, she pleaded guilty to premeditated murder. Beal, from Northampton, was arrested in March 2022 after police found Billingham’s body.

That same month, Beal had rented a cottage in Cumbria. From there, she allegedly sent several messages to relatives that caused concern. The family then contacted the police who went to see her.

In the cabin, the police found diary notes in which she revealed the murder.

“My actions still haunt me. I sometimes have to catch myself remembering what I did and then remembering my cover story – neither of which seem convincing,” the notes are said to have read.

Furthermore, the notes describe how she had planned the murder and the process of hiding the tracks.

“It was harder than I thought it would be. Hiding a body was bad. Moving a body is much more difficult than it looks on TV.”

Beal further describes how she stabbed Billingham in the neck and buried him in the backyard of their house, under a pile of sawdust and building materials, according to prosecutors.

The notes immediately sparked a police investigation, which quickly established that Billingham had not been seen or spoken to on the phone since the afternoon of 1 November 2021.

The 42-year-old’s mummified body was found in March 2022, over four months after he was last seen alive.

Murder mystery solved after 24 years

– Carefully planned

Prosecutors at Hugh Davies KC said in their opening statement to the court that there was “no doubt” that Beal was solely behind the murder and that it was a “carefully planned act”.

According to the prosecutors, Beal must have used the man’s phone to send messages to both friends, family and colleagues.

A message, sent from Billingham’s phone to his mother Yvonne Valentine, said he had just seen a football match at Old Trafford, the home stadium of Manchester United, that he had moved to Essex and that he had started a new job.

Furthermore, it said that he was in a relationship with a lady called Faye. “I know you’re probably thinking about me… but I’m very happy,” the message read.

– I replied that it was fine “as long as you are happy, Nick”, that was what I was most concerned about, says the mother in an interview with the BBC.

Promised sex

Davies also told the court that Beal had bought both guns, a chisel and cable ties.

“With the promise of sex after a bath, she stabbed him in the neck when he was blindfolded and probably tied to their bed,” prosecutors say in court.

In court, it is also claimed that the primary school teacher may have a personality disorder, with an “alter ego” called Tulip 22. This personality should have a darker behavior than Beal’s usual “I”.

This article was created using AI tools, but checked by Dagbladet’s journalists. More about our editorial guidelines and use of AI here.