Date set for murder trial

Laura Letts-Beckett was an elementary school teacher for 27 years before her death. Photo / File

A date has been set for the start of a trial for a former Napier City councillor accused of murdering his Canadian wife.

Peter Beckett will stand trial on March 30 after a jury was impanelled at the Kamloops Supreme Court in British Columbia this month.

The former councillor is accused of murdering his Canadian wife, Laura Letts-Beckett, after she drowned in what was initially thought to have been a fishing accident on August 18, 2010.

Beckett, 57, was charged a year later after being accused of pushing his wife off the boat at Shelter Bay, northwest of Vancouver in British Columbia.

He was also charged with two counts of counselling to commit murder and obstruction of justice after allegedly trying to arrange the murder of five witnesses while he was remanded in custody, including the parents of Ms Letts-Beckett, an Alberta lawyer and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant.

Beckett was raised in Hawke's Bay and elected to the Napier City Council in 1998 but did not seek re-election at the end of his term in 2001.

He moved to Canada about 12 years ago, and later married Ms Letts-Beckett, a teacher, before the couple settled in Alberta.

Throughout the case Beckett has fired four lawyers.

His New Zealand-based first wife and mother of his four children, Wendy Sail, was also interviewed by police as part of the investigation.