Shock over Canadian murder charge

Peter Beckett in 1998. Photo / Supplied

The New Zealand family of a former Napier City councillor are in shock after finding out he has been charged for the murder of his Canadian wife.

Peter Beckett, 54, was arrested by Royal Canadian Mounted Police earlier this month and will appear in court tomorrow, a year after she drowned during a fishing trip in Canada, Hawkes Bay Today reported.

His wife Laura Letts Beckett, 50, who was unable to swim and was not wearing a lifejacket, was thought to have fallen out of a small boat in a lake near Revelstoke in British Columbia, on August 18 last year.

Police announced in June the matter was being treated as a homicide.

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

He has four children in New Zealand with ex-wife Wendy Sail, who told the newspaper she was aware of the arrest, but did not want to comment. It was traumatic for their children, she said.

Her husband, Chris Sail, told the Dominion Post Mrs Sail and the four adult children she had with Beckett, aged 18- 30, had not spoken to him since he left New Zealand about 7 years ago.

He said the family found out about the charge when Canadian police rang to interview Mrs Sail.

The news had been traumatic for the family, particularly for the 18-year-old daughter, Mr Sail said.

Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott, who spent one term with Beckett on the council, said she knew her former colleague was facing charges.

"He was a one-term councillor, which clearly for the city and himself was enough," she said.

He did not stand for re-election in 2001, and later moved to Canada, where it's understood he married Ms Letts Beckett seven years ago.

Ms Letts Beckett taught at Dapp Elementary School near Edmonton, Alberta, for 27 years, while Beckett was a school bus driver. They lived in Westlock, 45 minutes' drive from the school.

Her family issued a statement through police after Beckett's arrest, saying they now believed the investigation to be over.

"As a family, we're waiting for the justice system to take its course."

Wendy Scinski, principal at Dapp Elementary School, said that Dapp was a small community "very much" saddened by Ms Letts Beckett's death.

"We've lost someone very special."

She described Ms Letts Beckett as "a wonderful teacher" who had spent all of her teaching years at the school.

- NZPA