Napier man facing trial next year

The trial of former Napier City councillor Peter Beckett will begin next year.

The trial of former Napier City councillor Peter Beckett for murder is expected to begin next year.

Peter Beckett, 56, is accused of killing his Canadian wife, school teacher Laura Letts-Beckett, 50, after she drowned on a fishing trip in 2010.

He is also charged with plotting to kill witnesses.

The trial will be held in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Police initially treated the death as drowning caused by the victim not wearing a life jacket and unable to swim but a year later it became a murder investigation and Beckett was arrested for first-degree murder.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police allege Beckett plotted from inside jail to kill witnesses. The alleged targets included his wife's parents, a policeman and a lawyer.

Kamloops' The Daily Mail reports the Crown has filed a direct indictment, a rare move in Canadian criminal law, which means there will be no preliminary hearing.

Crown lawyer Will Burrows said Beckett fired several lawyers and would represent himself which would require a three-month Supreme Court trial. No date has been set for the trial.

Beckett left his family in Hawke's Bay in 2004 and settled in Alberta, where he drove a school bus and remarried.

Beckett was a Napier City councillor from 1998 to 2001 and ran a tourism business taking tours to Cape Kidnappers.