This is the moment a murderous teacher, who stabbed her boyfriend and buried his mummified body in her garden, was filmed dancing in front of her students just months earlier.
Fiona Beal, 50, planned the murder of 42-year-old builder Nick Billingham in her diary, where she wrote under her alter ego ‘Tulip22’ before buying a knife and chisel.
After killing him ‘in cold blood’ at their Northampton home on November 1, 2021, the teacher told friends they had both tested positive for Covid so she wouldn’t be disturbed while they buried him in the garden.
She previously admitted manslaughter by loss of control but denied murder, but she dramatically changed her plea at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Footage has now emerged of the primary school teacher dancing carefree in front of a class at Eastfield Academy in Northampton.
Primary school teacher dances carefree in front of a class at Eastfield Academy in Northampton, just months before killing her boyfriend
She is seen waving her arms in the air in front of a classroom full of students
The killer is seen performing a dance routine and laughing in the school where she taught
The video of students watching the killer dance was posted by the school in December 2020
Fiona Beal (pictured) admitted killing her 42-year-old boyfriend Nicholas Billingham
Nick Billingham, pictured in a Man United football shirt, was found by police shortly after officers discovered a notebook containing a ‘chilling’ confession following a suicide attempt
To cover her tracks after Mr Billingham’s murder, Beal sent this text message to his mother Yvonne Valentine on December 30, 2021, pretending to be her dead son.
In the video obtained by The mirror, the killer is seen performing a dance routine and laughing at the school where she taught in year six.
It was installed by the school in December 2020, during the pandemic. The X-post read: ‘Year 6 have a dance to get us going.’
In another post in March 2021, Beal is pictured reading on the social media page for World Book Day.
Looking at the footage and photo, many would be shocked to discover that she was the same person who brutally stabbed her boyfriend to death.
Mr Billingham’s body remained undiscovered for four months before police found Beal’s diary, in which she wrote how her lover asked ‘why?’ when she stabbed him.
They then dug up the garden and uncovered his mummified remains, wrapped in tarps, in a makeshift grave filled with compost and ten 22.5kg bags of Cotswold Stone that she had bought from B&Q specifically for this purpose.
After she admitted killing him, Judge Mark Lucraft told her: “You have pleaded guilty this morning to murder, which, as you have no doubt been told, carries a life sentence.”
After killing her partner, Beal sent messages to friends claiming they were both sick with Covid and needed to isolate.
Prosecutor Hugh Davies QC told the Old Bailey: ‘Central to the plan was the knowledge that after stabbing him, claiming she had Covid, she would have ten days to bury him and commit her crime blur.
Mr Billingham’s mother, Yvonne, who visited Beal after killing her son and talked to her while his killer knew he lay dead in a makeshift grave yards away
Beal pictured with her buried boyfriend who she buried in a makeshift grave filled with compost and ten 22.5kg bags of Cotswold Stone that she bought from B&Q
Mr Billingham’s body remained undiscovered in the garden of their home for months (pictured).
‘And that’s exactly what happened. She thought about what time would be best to do that, or whether he would snore, but she knew or visualized that this would happen by stabbing him “from left to right, down slightly to the right.” And that’s what she did: she stabbed him in the jugular vein in his neck.”
Beal murdered Mr Billingham in their bedroom late on November 1.
Mr Davies continued: The clean-up started as early as 1.07am on November 2. Using her late partner’s account, and then her own on Amazon, she purchased multiple cleaning supplies, including for blinds, a new mop and bucket, ultra-heavy duty trash bags, a new mattress, bedding, clothing, wall art and mirrors .
‘This is thoughtful, controlled behavior that is intrinsically practical on the one hand and indulgent on the other. She returned a positive Covid test result on November 1. All you had to do was complete the NHS questionnaire online app and self-report a positive test.
‘There is no evidence that she ever took a PCR test. Her actions over the next ten days are completely inconsistent with the debilitating effects of Covid she claimed to be experiencing.”
Beal also sent messages to her sisters saying they had broken up, with one message saying he was leaving because he had had an affair with another woman.
The prosecutor said the story that Mr Billingham had run off with another woman was ‘completely false’. But jurors heard Billingham appeared to have cheated on Beal before.
She returned to work, “fully fulfilling her significant responsibilities as a teacher of sixth-grade students,” and received “sympathetic responses” from people who had heard about her split.
Her mental health began to deteriorate in late February 2022, the court was told.
The following month she rented a cabin in Cumbria and sent messages to relatives worrying about her welfare, prompting them to call police to check on her, the prosecutor said.
In the cabin, police found diaries “written in her hand” that “showed a completely different side of her personality.”
Beal had written in her diary that Mr. Billingham asked, “Why?” after she stabbed him.
Beal leaves the hardware store with her purchases on November 13, 2021
The killer remains in custody and will be sentenced on May 29 and 30
Mr Davies said: ‘They certainly contained some unequivocally clear statements of what she had done. These parts were not just her truth, but the truth. What was this?
“The short answer is that she intended to kill him in cold blood, and did so. She had bought a knife with a forged handle the days before. She had a chisel and zip ties.
“She promised sex after a bath and stabbed him in the neck while he was wearing a sleep mask and probably tied up with a cable on their bed.”
The court previously heard that this was the second time a trial had begun in the case, with another jury – for a trial that took place in Northampton last year – being dismissed before the end of evidence for legal reasons.
Following Beal’s guilty plea today, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Pendlebury of Northamptonshire Police said: ‘We are pleased that Fiona Beal has now made the decision to admit that she did in fact kill Nick Billingham and hope that this is the start of some closure for his family will mean. which have endured a torrid time for more than two years, including the original trial in Northampton in 2023.
“Today’s news will have come as a great relief ahead of her sentencing next month.”
Beal remains in custody and will be sentenced on May 29 and 30.
Mr Billingham previously had affairs and moved out of the house, but the couple had reconciled
The ‘very capable’ teacher told friends the couple had tested positive for Covid so she wouldn’t be disturbed as she buried Mr Billingham’s body
After the guilty plea, Billingham’s mother Yvonne said she was pained to know her son’s killer offered her a drink as he lay buried a stone’s throw away.
She said: ‘Nick was my firstborn and he was a very sweet little boy, cheeky, mischievous, as boys are. He had friends, he loved football.
“How you could hate someone so much for doing what she did is beyond belief, and apparently his last word was ‘why’ when she stabbed him in the neck.”
Recounting an event after her son’s death, she added: ‘I walked into the house and into the living room and the first thing I thought was ‘ooh, you’ve turned over all your furniture’.
‘Fiona offered me a Christmas drink, and I said thank you, so I sat there with this drink, but it always gets to me because Nick was buried a few yards away in the garden and I didn’t know he was there. .
‘I try not to think about it too much, but I still do it, it’s terrible.’