SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A 49-year-old Dettah man who broke into a woman's home in Dettah and sexually assaulted her anally showed no emotion after being sentenced to five years in prison Thursday in Supreme Court.

Hours earlier, Jimmy Philip Beaulieu told the court he was sorry for his behaviour, and then talked about the social problems affecting Dene people and how many are in jails in the North.

"My people are struggling," he said in the courtroom. "I'm sorry and sad for my people because these things are going to continue until we do something about it."

On Wednesday, it took a jury of six men and six women only two-and-a-half hours to find Beaulieu guilty of break and enter to commit an indictable offence in a residence.

Crown prosecutor Janice Walsh requested a prison term of five to seven years for what she called a "sad state of affairs."

Beaulieu's lawyer, Thomas Boyd, criticized the Crown's recommendation starting at five years as too harsh, and instead suggested three years.

The maximum penalty for the offence is life in prison.

Justice John Vertes stayed on a second charge of sexual assault.

The two-day trial began on Monday with the testimony of the victim, who told the court that on Dec. 20, 2009, she left a house party in Dettah at 6 a.m. after a night of drinking. Following a brief conversation with Beaulieu, she said she walked home, went into her bedroom and passed out wearing her clothes. About an hour later, she said she woke up to find Beaulieu lying behind her in bed, touching her legs. He then pulled her sweatpants down to her knees as she lied on her right side and, without her consent, sodomized her for about 10 minutes.

"I felt his penis touching my bum," she said. "He put it inside me."

The victim further testified Beaulieu didn't say anything during the incident, and that she didn't yell, scream or resist because she was too scared.

"I didn't know what to do," she told Walsh.

When he finished, she said he tried to pull up her sweatpants and then he left the bedroom and the residence. She called her mother who phoned the Yellowknife RCMP.

Beaulieu testified on Tuesday the woman was a "willing participant" in the act. He said she invited him back to her place after the party, and while in her bedroom and on her bed, he she grabbed his left hand, put it on her thigh and then guided it to her "private part."

"Then you put your penis inside her anus?" Walsh asked.

"Correct," replied Beaulieu.

At around 10 a.m., RCMP Const. Jason Muzzerall and Cpl. Jeremie Landry went to the victim's home in Dettah and then drove her to Stanton Territorial Hospital for a rape kit test. The officers returned at 2:12 p.m. and began what Landry described as a "manhunt" for Beaulieu. After three hours, the officers received a call that Beaulieu was spotted hiding in a resident's shed.

With Landry standing by the resident's house with his handgun drawn, and Muzzerall at the side of the shed with a 12-gauge shotgun, Beaulieu exited the shed with his hands in the air. He was arrested and taken to the Yellowknife detachment where the victim's DNA was swabbed from Beaulieu's penis.

Boyd read Beaulieu's criminal record to the court, which included 10 prior convictions since 1988, including a 15-month sentence in 2009 for setting fire to his wife's home. Boyd noted that none of the prior convictions were sexual assaults.

Beaulieu committed the Dec. 20 offence only 11 days after being released from jail for arson.

Besides the prison term, Vertes also ordered Beaulieu to provide a DNA sample to police and issued a 10-year firearms ban. He also ordered that Beaulieu be placed on the national sex offender registry for 20 years.

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