When Fiona Beal claimed she had to isolate at home with Covid, Natalie Gardiner, a teaching assistant, would check up on her friend over text message.
“I tried to get in touch, I heard she had Covid and I asked if she was okay,” she said. On November 1, 2021 she wrote to Beal: “Heard you’ve got Covid.” She received the reply: “Feel like shite.”
Gardiner told her “If you need anything let me know.”
On November 11, Beal, 50, was seemingly recovering, and replied: “Sorry I missed your call, feeling a bit better … speak after school xx.”
Unknown to Gardiner, it was during this period that the Year 6 teacher had killed her cheating partner Nicholas Billingham, 42, after luring him to the