- A British man tried to kill his pregnant partner by attacking her with a hammer while she was bathing, prosecutors say.
- Anthony Beckett, a QAnon believer, launched the Jan. 18 attack after thinking the Chinese and US governments would go after his family.
- He pleaded guilty to attempted murder on Monday and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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A British man and QAnon conspiracy theorist tried to kill his pregnant partner by attacking her with a hammer while she was bathing after convincing himself that agents of the US and Chinese governments were about to go after him and his family, prosecutors said.
Anthony Beckett, 33, pleaded guilty to attempted murder on Monday in court in Middlesbrough, England, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the violent Jan. 18 attack, The Northern Echo reported.
Beckett, who became obsessed with the 2020 US presidential election, "discussed the need to kill" his family ahead of the "great revelation" on Jan. 20 – the day of President Joe Biden's inauguration, prosecutor Jo Kidd said, according to the newspaper.
Beckett also believed a "great reset" would happen on Jan. 20, installing Donald Trump in office and exposing a supposed cabal of child-abusing elites.
Two days before the inauguration, Beckett struck his partner in the head four times with a hammer and tried to drown her as she was washing her hair in the bath, according to The Northern Echo.
"He was saying 'I need to do this, I need to do this,' " Kidd said in court, explaining that the victim "tried to fight back against the attack but he then put his hands around her throat and tried to drown her."
The bludgeoned woman managed to escape the attack and ran naked into the street to call for help, the court heard.
The couple's two young children were inside the Middlesbrough home at the time of the attack, according to prosecutors. Kidd added that the victim "thought he would kill her and their children."
Beckett believed that members of the US and Chinese governments would come after him and his family, according to The Northern Echo, which reported that he had posted several QAnon theories about the COVID-19 pandemic online.
He also believed that former President Donald Trump was the only person who could save him and his family, Vice News reported.
Beckett's lawyer Jonathan Walker claimed in court that his client had a history of mental health issues since childhood and was a regular cannabis user.
"He had no recollection of what happened that night," Walker told the court, according to The Northern Echo.