Primary school teacher who killed partner & buried him in garden tells court she remembers little of it

A PRIMARY teacher who killed her partner and buried him in their garden told a court she remembers little of it.

Fiona Beal, 49, got Nicholas Billingham, 42, to wear an eye mask before she stabbed him in the neck in their bedroom.

Asked yesterday by her barrister if she accepted killing him, Beal answered: “Yes.

Andrew Wheeler, KC, then asked: “Do you remember much of the detail about the events?”

She replied: “I don’t remember much at all about when it actually happened or the months afterwards.”

Mr Wheeler had argued earlier that Beal, who denies murder, was guilty of manslaughter having been mentally “broken” by coercive behaviour.

The court previously heard that writing in a notebook found when she was arrested in Cumbria last year said she thought her partner was cheating and had “decided to kill him”.

Mr Wheeler said the “scribblings” showed a disturbed mind.

Jurors were told it also contained a claim that Beal had been spat on and threatened during sex.

Yesterday Beal said Billingham became obsessed with cleaning and had thrown plates at a wall.

She is said to have used carpet, bark chippings, soil and building materials to bury his body at their Northampton home.

It lay undiscovered for 4½ months.

The trial continues at the city’s crown court.