Kiwi's murder trial in Canada set for May, 2013

Former Napier city councillor Peter Beckett pictured in 1998. Photo / Supplied

Former Napier city councillor Peter Beckett will go on trial for murder in a Canadian court in May next year.

Beckett, 54, is accused of murdering his wife, Laura Letts-Beckett, who drowned in 2010.

He was arrested by Canadian police in August last year after a year-long investigation into his wife's death.

A spokeswoman for Salmon Arm Provincial Court, north of Vancouver, said today that Beckett would face trial there in May 2013.

Beckett had elected a trial by judge alone in the provincial court.

Mrs Letts-Beckett was originally thought to have drowned in a lake when she fell from a boat because she was not wearing a life jacket and could not swim.

However, police announced in June last year that they were treating her death as a homicide and Beckett was charged with first-degree murder.

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