Today's case is a pretty brutal one. It starts with a relationship and the reason

we know the ins and outs of what happened is because the murderer wrote it in their diary.

They write about cable ties, they write about using sex to lure the victim and they write about hiding a knife

in their dressing gown pocket. This is Red Rum, stories about the true victims of crime. I upload

video episodes on a Monday and a podcast exclusive on a Thursday, so make sure you're subscribed

so you never miss an episode.

Fiona Beale was a primary school teacher. She taught year six. She was known to be super outgoing and funny. She was friends with her colleagues and just generally she was well liked at

school. She was going out with a man called Nicholas Billingham and he worked as a builder. He worked for one company so he was there every single day, Monday to Friday.

And the pair had met and their relationship had started pretty solidly, but quickly things had started to become a little bit rockier.

There was a time in their relationship that the pair were arguing non-stop and things got so bad that

Nicholas ended up admitting to Fiona that he had cheated on her and not only that but he was leaving

her for this woman. He did leave her for the woman and they end up having a child together

but very quickly that relationship dissolves as

well and so nicholas then ends up coming back to the owner and the pair reconcile they work

out their differences and they are back in a relationship they're now back living together and they

seem to have worked things out it's the the 1st of November 2021. So we're

very much in COVID land. This is the kind of second wave, I think. So lockdowns were not mandatory,

but if you tested positive for COVID, you would have to self-isolate for 10 days. So that's the kind of world we're living in.

And it's on this date that Fiona texts her boss and her colleagues at work saying that

both she and Nicola, so she calls Nick, have tested positive for COVID, so they're going to have

to isolate for 10 days. And she says, she's feeling feeling pretty rough and then Nick texts his boss

and says pretty much the same thing. His boss texts back saying feel better son keep me updated

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