Fiona Beal Trial: Cumbrian police ‘not happy’ with initial search of teacher’s home before it was declared a murder scene

The home of former teacher Fiona Beal was not declared a murder scene until Cumbrian police requested a second more detailed search of the property, Northampton Crown Court heard today.

Day two of Beal’s trial focused on the police officers involved in her detainment under the mental health act, the search of her Northampton home and her arrest on suspicion of Nicholas Billingham’s murder.

The court heard that Beal had made an attempt on her life on March 15, 2022 whilst booked into a lodge near Windermere in Cumbria for 10 nights.

Police officers attended the lodge for a welfare check and she was taken to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Whilst Beal was being checked over and a mental health assessment was carried out, mental health nurses approached police officers with a blue leather notebook that had been recovered from the lodge she was staying at.

PC Roy Williams, giving evidence, said: “There were aspects of it that were very disturbing.”

He detailed how the notebook described Beal’s long-term partner as “not a very nice man” and then killing someone before disposing of the body.

He recalled Beal writing, “Moving a body is much more difficult than it looks on TV.”

PC Jenkins - in a statement read aloud to the court - said he took photos of every page of the notebook and sent them to Northamptonshire Police. Having read the notebook, he said he became convinced that Beal had killed her ex-partner and disposed of his body in some manner.

In Northampton, a single police officer was deployed to Beals address in Moore Street on March 16, 2022. Nobody was home so the officer had to break in. He had a cursory look inside the property and noted that a letter addressed to Nicholas Billingham had “return to sender” written on it.

He saw a mattress leaning against the back wall in the basement of the house but did not think anything suspicious of it at the time, the court heard.

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.”

He requested that Northamptonshire Police conduct a more detailed search and check every address associated with Beal and Mr Billingham.

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.

DS Harrison explained to the court that she was called to Beal’ property with a number of officers on 17 March 2022 to search for Mr Billingham.

She detailed how officers searched the ground floor of the terraced house before moving onto the cellar, where 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.

This prompted DS Harrison to declare Beal’s house a murder scene, she told the court.

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” in the rear garden. This was passed on to the senior investigating officer.

The trial continues.