A primary school teacher accused of stabbing her partner to death “in cold blood” before burying his body in their garden has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Fiona Beal, 50, admits that she killed her 42-year-old boyfriend Nicholas Billingham, whose partly mummified remains were discovered four-and-a-half months after he was last seen.
The Recorder of London, judge Mark Lucraft KC, told a jury at the Old Bailey on Friday that Beal pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter – but she denies that she murdered Mr Billingham between October 30 and November 10 2021.
The teacher, of Moore Street, Northampton, was arrested in March 2022 after police discovered the body.
Forensic officers and specialist search teams were deployed to the address before the discovery was made.
Opening her trial at the Old Bailey on Friday, prosecutor Hugh Davies KC said: “She had planned to, and had, killed him in cold blood.”
The trial continues.
