'One of Northamptonshire's most high-profile murder cases in recent years' to feature on new ITV true-crime documentary TONIGHT

Killer in the House is a new prime-time documentary and in its first episode will focus on the murder of Northampton man, Nicholas Billingham.

Northamptonshire Police began working with TV production company Mentorn Media within weeks of the case coming to light. The programme will detail the investigation and speak to many of the people directly involved, including Nick’s family, prosecution counsel and the police investigation team that pulled the case together against Beal.

The documentary, which air on ITV on Tuesday January 20, tells to story of how the 42-year-old’s body was discovered in March 2022, buried in the back garden of the home he shared in Kingsley, Northampton, with primary school teacher Fiona Beal.

As the documentary describes, Nick had actually been stabbed to death by Beal who then buried his body on or after November 1 the previous year. Days before the police made the grim discovery in Moore Street, Beal had been located in a remote lodge in Cumbria, lying in a bath with her wrist cut.

While police did not initially suspect foul play, that changed when they uncovered a journal in the cabin which led to the discovery of blood-stained bedding and a body buried in the garden of her home, which had gone undetected for five months.

Just ahead of a retrial at the Old Bailey in April 2024 – following the collapse of a four-month trial at Northampton Crown Court – Beal pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for 20 years. The prosecution counsel described the murder as a "carefully planned domestic execution".

Supt Adam Pendlebury said: “This was an extraordinary case and it was no surprise when we were approached very early on to work with Mentorn Media on this documentary for ITV.

"It has been an interesting experience and the team and I viewed a first cut of the programme some months ago and were pleased with the end result."

The documentary will air at 9pm tonight and will be available to stream on ITVX.