A former Napier city councillor charged with murdering his Canadian wife in 2010 remains in custody in British Columbia awaiting the setting of a date for a trial delayed by his own difficulties with lawyers and plans to conduct his own defence.
Peter Beckett, 57, is in Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, inland northeast of Vancouver.It is hoped a trial date will be scheduled when he makes his next appearance in court on Monday, a courts official in Kamloops told Hawke's Bay Today.
The matter was adjourned last week after an application by defence counsel appointed earlier this year amid a courtroom debate between a judge and Beckett over whether Beckett could represent himself.
A New Zealander raised in Hawke's Bay, he was elected to the Napier council in 1998, and did not seek re-election at the end of the term in 2001.
He moved to Canada about 10 years ago, later marrying Canadian school teacher Laura Letts.