Wife-killer and former Napier councillor Peter Beckett assaulted in prison

Former Napier city councillor Peter Beckett, pictured in 1998, killed his wife in 2010. Photo / Supplied

Former Napier City councillor Peter Beckett was assaulted in prison days before he was found guilty of murdering his wife, it has been revealed.

Beckett was found guilty of first degree murder in September for drowning his second wife, Laura Letts-Beckett, in Upper Arrow Lake near Revelstoke in Canada. He was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment without possibility of parole.

According to court documents, charges have now been laid against inmate Afshin Maleki Ighani after two unrelated stabbings at the Okanagan Correctional Centre.

Attempted murder charges against Ighani have been dropped and new charges laid. Letts-Beckett died on August 18, 2010, while the couple were boating in a small inflatable vessel on Upper Arrow Lake, northeast of Vancouver.

Her death was initially reported as a drowning, Beckett claiming she accidentally fell from the boat, but he was arrested a year after she died and his trial for murder began on August 21.

Raised in Hastings, Beckett was running a tour business taking groups from Napier to Cape Kidnappers when he became a Napier councillor in 1998. He did not seek re-election and moved to Canada, where he met and married Letts.

Former Napier mayor Alan Dick told the Herald in September he wouldn't be surprised if Beckett was found guilty or not guilty, but said he was as an "unusual person in reality".

Beckett served one term as a councillor between 1998 and 2001 and Dick said he had strong views on certain things around the council table and had a conspiracy mentality.

"At one stage he made very serious allegations about the CEO at the time, Neil Taylor, and the allegations were clearly totally unfounded."

Dick said apart from finding Beckett difficult around the council table, Beckett would also often ring him up at night abusing him completely "out of the blue".

"It was like he flicked a switch, as he could also be charming."

A former councillor, who didn't want to be named, said Beckett was "erratic, self-serving and obnoxious".

"And that's a fact."

The former Karamu High School student was known for losing his cool in public and on one occasion arrived intoxicated at a Napier bar after closing time and abused staff for not serving him.