Conspiracy theorist who believed ‘great reset was on way’ beat pregnant partner in bath with hammer – Teesside Live

A heavy cannabis user obsessed with conspiracy theories smashed his pregnant partner over the head with a hammer and tried to drown her in the bath.

Anthony Beckett, 33, launched the murderous attack after becoming obsessed with theories around political events like the US election and believing “the Chinese” were coming for him.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Beckett believed “the great reset” was on the way on January 20 and he had “discussed the need to kill the family”.

Read more:Hunt for alleged knife-man who stormed Middlesbrough pub and smashed car into fence

It culminated in him trying to murder his partner on January 18 this year.

Prosecutor Jo Kidd said it was that evening when the victim was washing her hair in the bath at her Middlesbrough home.

Ms Kidd said: “She put her hair back under the water and her head under the water to rinse it, Anthony Beckett came into the bathroom.

“He hit her head using a hammer to her skull.”

Beckett continued the “unrelenting attack”, landing four hammer blows.

He then “put his hands around her throat and started to drown her.”

The struggling victim managed to unhook the plug to lower the water level as Beckett “repeatedly tried to get her head under the water”.

“She was terrified”, Ms Kidd said.

The woman lost consciousness but came round to find herself still in the bath being strangled.

The court heard how she screamed for help from a window before running downstairs and spilling out into the street injured and naked.

A police search of the house unearthed a dagger, machete and homemade noose.

The victim suffered a wound and bruising to her head.

Beckett told the police he had asked his partner if she would die “before the Chinese arrived”.

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He pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder.

Beckett, of Alnwick Court, Middlesbrough, who sobbed throughout the court case as he appeared over a prison video link, was jailed for 10 years by judge Her Honour Penelope Moreland.

Jonathan Walker, mitigating, said the defendant had previously been “a loving and caring partner and father” but had suffered a “psychotic episode”.

He told the court: “He remembers little if anything about the incident itself, he has been obsessed in dealing with his legal representatives in conveying to (the victim) the levels of apology.”

He added that Beckett has long suffered with mental health difficulties that pre-date his use of cannabis.

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