Fiona Beal: Murder victim wrote of his love for killer teacher

Beal’s mental health started to deteriorate in late February 2022, the court was told.

The following month, she rented a cabin in Cumbria and sent messages to family members which gave them cause for concern over her wellbeing, prompting them to call the police to check on her.

In the cabin, police found Beal’s journals containing a confession to the killing.

They also included reference to her having a split personality and an alter ego she called Tulip 22.

She wrote: “I had smoked all day. I had a bath, I left the water in. He had been pushing for sex. I encouraged the bath with the incentive of sex afterwards.

“While he was in the bath I kept the knife in my dressing gown pocket and then I had it in the drawer next to the bed.

“I brought a chisel, bin bag and cable ties up too. I got him to wear an eye mask.”

She went on: “My last words to him when he asked why was that he was not going to do to [another female] what he had done to me.”

The journals triggered a police investigation, which soon established that Mr Billingham had not been seen or spoken to by telephone since the afternoon of 1 November 2021.

Beal was arrested in March 2022 after police discovered his body.

Mr Davies said Beal “planned to execute” Mr Billingham then “delivered a false narrative” so she could “conceal her crime”.

All this was done while she continued “to deliver high-quality teaching to Year 6 pupils as if nothing had happened”, Mr Davies said.

The hearing continues.