Fiona Beal Trial: Nicholas Billingham cheated on murder-accused teacher and fathered baby with another woman

Bubbly, chatty, friendly, outgoing, talkative and smiley were all words used to describe Mr Billingham today (March 21).

Northampton Crown Court heard how he liked to work on cars as a hobby, how he was conscientious about his looks and how he took pride in renovating the Moore Street home he shared with Fiona Beal - the former Eastfield Academy teacher accused of his murder.

“I never got the feeling from any of them that there was any problems with their relationship. They just seemed like a normal, happy couple really,” their hairdresser told the court.

One of Mr Billingham’s relatives painted a very different picture of him, however.

He told the court that Mr Billingham had a small circle of friends as he does not really like many people.

He added that Mr Billingham was a “serial cheater” and Beal had a lot to deal with following the “series of betrayals, money and women.”

In a statement, the relative said all the fallouts in the family had been caused by Mr Billingham.

“It is like a stone has been dropped onto a pond and the ripples affect everyone and it is all because of Nick’s behaviour,” he added.

When another relative was asked by the prosecuting barrister - Steven Perian KC - what Mr Billingham’s vices were, he said he found out that Mr Billingham was a gambler around 11 years ago.

The relative said: “We were at work one day and he was in tears. I said, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ He said I just lost a lot of money gambling online.”

As a result, the relative said he had to lend Mr Billingham £3,000.

He added: “He did pay every penny back and I didn’t even have to ask for it.”

Mr Billingham also “liked the ladies,” and had cheated on Beal on two known occasions when the pair lived in Earls Barton, the court heard.

On the second occasion, he met the other woman when she was working behind the bar of a pub in Earls Barton in 2011 and they started a sexual relationship, which lasted around a month.

They reconnected again in 2017 and re-started the sexual relationship. Giving evidence in court, the woman said Mr Billingham informed her that he and Beal were no longer a couple - just living together and sleeping in separate rooms.

Mr Billingham and the woman continued in an on-off relationship until 2018 when Beal found out about the relationship and Mr Billingham lived with the other woman for around two months.

“He seemed happy,” the woman told the court. However, when she discovered that she was pregnant with Mr Billingham’s child in October 2018 and informed him that she wanted to keep the baby, he was not pleased.

“He wanted it to just be us,” the woman told the court.

One day, she returned home to find Mr Billingham was gone along with all of his belongings. Upset, she repeatedly tried to ring him but had no response.

A close relative of Mr Billingham’s said he was “annoyed” with him for not intending to have anything to do with the baby and told him it was not the responsible thing to do.

“I was quite upset about that,” he told the court.”I said you are the father, you should see him. He’s going to grow up without a dad and, you know, everyone should grow up with a dad.”

The court heard that Mr Billingham moved to a flat share in Earls Barton in January 2019 and attended one of the baby’s scans. The woman hoped Mr Billingham would change his mind about their baby but he told her he was only there to support her.

By around May 2019, Beal and Mr Billingham were back together, the court heard.

A close relative told the court that Mr Billingham and Beal seemed “happy.” He described Beal as being “like a mum” to Mr Billingham.

When asked to expand on that, the relative replied: “She was easy going. That’s the way she was.”

Mr Billingham’s baby was born later that year but - despite the woman sending Mr Billingham pictures of his child - she did not hear from him until she contacted the Child Maintenance Service (CMS).

She told the court that Mr Billingham contacted her to say he did not want to go through CMS but he would make direct payments of £100 every month instead. He did this every month - without delay - on the 13th of every month until November 2021 - when police believe he was killed.

The woman told the court this was “unexpected” and, when she tried to contact him about the payments, she found that he had blocked her phone number and all social media accounts.

The trial continues.