UK - Nicholas Billingham, 42, body found buried in garden, Northampton, Mar 2022 *arrest*

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Investigators examining the property reported that the walls looked like they had been recently painted and the master bedroom was very clean. Traces of blood were, however, discovered on the base of the divan bed, the floor, the underside of the carpet, a chest of drawers, a lamp and the landing wall.

[...]

The court was shown three CCTV footage clips of Beal purchasing compost, decorative stones and bark chippings from the B&Q store at Nene Valley Retail Park on November 13, 2021, December 13, 2021 and December 22, 2021.

[...]

Mr Wheeler said that, [...]
her relationship with Mr Billingham had been coercive.
“He was psychologically domineering and, over the years, wore her down until she was quite literally broken.”
He said that all the notes that Beal left are clear evidence of a “disturbed mind.”

https://www.northantstelegraph.co.u...ingham-murder-in-notebook-court-hears-4062739
 
Fiona Beal, 49, who wrote in her notebooks about planning the killing of her partner Nicholas Billingham, 42, stabbed him in the neck in November 2021, disposed of his body and then returned to her job at Eastfields Academy and carried on with life as normal according to crown prosecutors.

[...]

Throughout the months after she killed Billingham the prosecution say she used his phone to pretend to friends and family that he was still alive. She sent messages over a number of weeks from Billingham to his mother Yvonne Valentine as well as to people he worked with.

[...]

Throughout the opening speech the jury was read a series of notes by the prosecution that had been taken from Beal’s notebooks. The books had been found in the lodge where she had ran away to. In the notebooks she wrote of an alter ego she called Tulip22. [...]

Another said:

“People will blame my mental health. Yes it is a factor and I’ve always had issues there but I (words crossed out) could have/should have . . . fixed myself.”
Notes were also read from her phone. One said:

“I’m not a total monster. I know what I did.”

The prosecution told the jury that Beal is ‘cunning, cruel, deceptive and devious’.

[...]

“The defence say you will hear evidence that Mrs Beal suffered from mental health issues and was also in a coercive relationship with Mr Billingham.

“Her actions and thoughts were controlled and manipulated by him not necessarily through physical threat although you will hear evidence that there was such physical threat on occasions, physical and sexual. [...]

‘I’m not a total monster. I know what I did’
 
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Mr Billingham had a job with a colleague on November 5, 2021.
the colleague went to Mr Billingham’s shared property with Beal in Moore Street on November 4, 2021 .
Beal answered the door and told the colleague they both had Covid and Mr Billingham could not work the next day.

The colleague texted Mr Billingham’s phone asking him to leave the key to the property they were working on under the doormat.
When the colleague collected the key and got to work, he found that it was the wrong key.

The colleague received further text messages from Mr Billingham saying he had to move out of Northampton and left the previous week and moved in with a girl and asked him to drop money owed to him at Beal’s house.

Another colleague of Mr Billingham’s received a text message from him on November 15, 2021 saying: “I’m sorry but your going to need to get someone else to finish greens Norton. I’ve moved away and it’s to far to commute. It was good working with you Xx.”

Mr Billingham’s mother, Yvonne Valentine, texted her son on November 3, and again on November 7, 2021.
She received no response so texted on December 21, 2021 asking: “Are you ok Nick, bit worried about you? X”

She received a response on December 30, 2021 saying: all good. We’re in Manchester for new year...just watched utd beat Burnley at old Trafford! Back to Essex Sunday. I know what you probably think of me but I felt like a prisoner and then I met Faye. I’m back selling cars and happy. I’ll let u know my address wen things calm down! Email me if this phone off! [email address] happy 2022 xx”




 
'What I would describe as sinister acoustic music was playing from a mobile phone that was next to her.

'I immediately requested an ambulance to attend our location. I suggested that we tried to get her out of the bath to perform CPR.

'She then roused and became somewhat conscious. I pulled quite violently on her ear to try and get a pain response.

'She moaned and went to turn over in the bath. We sat her up and that's when she started to become emotional. [...]

PC Lawson later guarded Beal in hospital after being alerted by doctors to a blue book which contained graphic information regarding a death. [...]

'I was aware that she had separated from her partner before Christmas. I still believed at that point it was very unlikely that anyone had been killed.'

 
Officers had attended the lodge Beal was renting in the Lake District just four days earlier after she was reported missing from her home .............

Officers said she appeared 'relaxed' and 'chatted freely' telling officers to inform her family she was safe and well.......

During the second visit after her family raised further concerns for her safety, PC Josh Parkin found Beal seriously injured .......

PC Parkin said: 'I saw a female laying in the bath completely naked..............

'What I would describe as sinister acoustic music was playing from a mobile phone that was next to her.........

'I immediately requested an ambulance to attend our location. I suggested that we tried to get her out of the bath to perform CPR.





 
"When asked by prosecutor, Steven Perian KC, what he heard of the assessment, he said: “I heard the doctors ask a question in relation to voices in her head.

“I believe she stated that in November 2021, there was a voice in her head that told her to stand up for herself.” [...]

Bodycam footage of the assessment later showed psychiatrists confirming that she heard “different voices” on “some days”, starting the previous November."

[...]

Woman accused of stabbing partner to death ‘heard voice in her head’, trial told
 
"When asked by prosecutor, Steven Perian KC, what he heard of the assessment, he said: “I heard the doctors ask a question in relation to voices in her head.

“I believe she stated that in November 2021, there was a voice in her head that told her to stand up for herself.” [...]

Bodycam footage of the assessment later showed psychiatrists confirming that she heard “different voices” on “some days”, starting the previous November."

[...]

Woman accused of stabbing partner to death ‘heard voice in her head’, trial told
Hmmm… standing up for yourself is now premeditated murder?
 
[...]

PC Jenkins - in a statement read aloud to the court - [...] he said he became convinced that Beal had killed her ex-partner and disposed of his body in some manner.

[...]

When PC Jenkins received word from Northamptonshire Police when they checked Beal’s house and found nothing, he said he was “not happy with this.”

[...]

In his statement read aloud to the court, PC Jenkins said: “Northamptonshire Police needed to do more.”

Detective Sergeant Victoria Harrison was called to the stand.


[...] they flipped over a mattress and discovered blood pooled in the top corner. Next to it, they found two bin bags sealed with cable ties. One contained a duvet covered in blood.

[...]

DS Harrison then told the court how a police officer reported what appeared to be freshly laid bark that had been placed “abnormally” and “unevenly” [...]

 
As regards the uneven freshly laid bark, I'm not sure if they mean the surface level was uneven, or if it just means randomly scattered. I do know that in another case I'm following (Vallow-Daybell), a body was found in the back-yard of a former grave-digger, and the body was covered over by a board before soil and turf was relaid on top, (I suppose giving the same effect as a coffin) and the reason is that with decomposition the ground will settle and sink after burial.

JMO
 
[...]

PC Jenkins - in a statement read aloud to the court - [...] he said he became convinced that Beal had killed her ex-partner and disposed of his body in some manner.

[...]

When PC Jenkins received word from Northamptonshire Police when they checked Beal’s house and found nothing, he said he was “not happy with this.”

[...]

In his statement read aloud to the court, PC Jenkins said: “Northamptonshire Police needed to do more.”

Detective Sergeant Victoria Harrison was called to the stand.


[...] they flipped over a mattress and discovered blood pooled in the top corner. Next to it, they found two bin bags sealed with cable ties. One contained a duvet covered in blood.

[...]

DS Harrison then told the court how a police officer reported what appeared to be freshly laid bark that had been placed “abnormally” and “unevenly” [...]

I'm glad PC Jenkins was on the ball
 
"Giving evidence to Northampton Crown Court on Wednesday, forensic archaeologist Peter Schofield took the jury through photographs taken as Mr Billingham’s body was uncovered during a three-day excavation. [...]

Describing what he found on March 18, 19 and 20 last year, Mr Schofield told the court paving slabs had been placed vertically, forming a “retaining wall” to the mound.

After listing the various layers of material which were identified and removed, Mr Schofield told the jury: “There was a visible mound forming the approximate shape of a human body, which was covered by a rug and also by a carpet.”

 
"Jurors were shown photographs of the mound in a narrow rectangular area between a fence and the wall of an annexe housing Beal’s kitchen, leading to a set of French doors. [...]

Jurors were also shown pictures of a knotted hose pipe and a cable found near Mr Billingham’s head, near more plastic ties.

Mr Schofield continued: “The partially-wrapped body was sited on top of plywood sheeting on top of weathered gravel, which appeared to be the ground surface prior to the deposition of the body.”

The court has previously heard Beal, who taught at Northampton’s Eastfield Academy, was a “thoroughly liked” teacher."

 

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