Cara Loverock and Katie May
Northern News Services
Published Friday, August 08, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A Dettah man accused of setting fire to a house with two youths inside is being held in custody until his next court appearance.

Jimmy Beaulieu, 45, appeared before justice of the peace Kevin Dennis, who denied his request to be released on bail on Wednesday afternoon.

Beaulieu is facing a charge of arson with disregard for human life.

According to Crown attorney Roger Shepard, two attempts were made to set fire to a Dettah home during the early hours of Aug. 3. The first fire was set under the home in a crawl space at roughly 1 a.m., but it did not spread due to lack of oxygen, according to Shepard.

Beaulieu is accused of returning to the home, pushing the two girls inside and spraying a substance on the stove, which reportedly resulted in a fire. The girls, ages 16 and 10, escaped unharmed.

RCMP did not find Beaulieu at the scene. He later turned himself in to police at the Yellowknife detachment.

Beaulieu is also facing an assault charge stemming from a July 5 assault on a woman.

It is alleged that she was pushed down and an attempt was made to gouge out her eyes.

Defence attorney Abdl Khan argued that further detention of Beaulieu was not justified. However, Dennis ruled that Beaulieu should stay in jail at least until his next court appearance.

"The allegations you are facing are of a very serious matter," said Dennis.

Beaulieu requested that he be released in order to continue work and said he would be fired if he was unable to show up for work by Friday.

Dennis said the court decision was final. Beaulieu is scheduled to appear in Territorial Court on Aug. 12.

RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich said police are still investigating.

She said while there have been a number of arson cases in the Yellowknife area, she has only seen the disregard for human life charge laid twice in two-and-a-half years.

NWT fire marshal Steve Moss said Wednesday he is also still investigating the case and expects to submit his report to RCMP soon.