Description
The trial of a primary school teacher who stabbed her partner and buried his body in their garden was recounted to a police community support worker who came to the house three months later and told a woman apparently surprised at the threshold. Fiona Beal denies the murder of Nicholas Billingham, saying his "broken" state of mind means he is guilty of the misdemeanor manslaughter. Prosecutors allege that the 49-year-old man, from Moore Street, Northampton, stabbed Mr Billingham in the neck on the night of 1 November 2021, hid his body, then painted and cleaned the room where the murder took place.
In the third week of Beal's trial at Northampton Crown Court, police community support officer Noemi Mrella was said to have been tasked with trying to contact Mr Billingham after his van was found. "abandoned" under trees that needed to be pruned.
In a statement read to the jury by prosecutor Steven Parian KC, the PCSO said she called 71 Moore Street in full uniform in February of last year.
The officer said: “I was asked to investigate an abandoned vehicle, a white van. It was parked under a tree and members of the public wanted to cut branches from the tree.
"Once I got the address (of the custodian of record), I knocked on the door at 71 Moore Street on February 6, 2021.
“A white woman answered the door… and said that Mr. Billingham was her ex-partner and that they had recently separated.
"The woman was wearing a dress and had an expression on her face when she opened the door that I can describe as somewhat shocking."
Recounting what she was told after she told the woman the van might be damaged, the PCSO statement continued: "She had no idea where she was and doubts she's in Northampton."
"She had tried to reach him on the phone and he had to change the number."
The court heard the woman who answered the door say that she had tried to contact Mr Billingham "several times because he still had some of his belongings inside the house".
Although the officer said the woman's expression "initially seemed shocked" upon seeing the police, he made sure she was not in trouble and her body language suggested she was relieved.
The PCSO statement continued: “This investigation only took a few minutes. She seemed nervous at first.
"However, she did not act in any way that would suggest anything suspicious or cause concern at the time of my presence."
It was heard at trial that the remains of Mr Billingham, 42, were discovered in March last year, buried under bark chips, earth, plywood, concrete building blocks, bricks and planks.
Beal was arrested by police after she apparently attempted to take her own life at a hostel in Cumbria on March 15, where officers found a handwritten note declared by the Crown to be a "confession" to the murder.
The trial continues.
PA files
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