A former Napier city councillor accused of murdering his wife has appeared in court in Canada yesterday as the case gets ready to go to trial.
Peter Beckett, 54, was arrested by Canadian police last August after a year-long investigation into the death of his wife, Laura Letts-Beckett, who drowned in 2010.
The death was originally thought to have happened because she was not wearing a life jacket and could not swim.
However, police announced in June that they were treating it as a homicide, and Beckett was charged with first-degree murder.
He was remanded in custody when he appeared in the Salmon Arm Provincial Court, north of Vancouver, yesterday, a court spokesman said.
