A 31-year-old Island man has been sentenced to three years in jail for lighting a tent on fire outside the Park Street Emergency Shelter while someone was inside.
The fire happened on Nov. 6 of last year, in the early hours of the morning.
Jesse Douglas Richardsson Paquet was originally charged with attempted murder and arson, but pleaded guilty to just the arson charge in Charlottetown provincial court earlier this month.
Court documents show it was all caught on video.
Around 6 a.m. on the day of the fire, Paquet was seen peeking inside the tent, which had been set up outside the Park Street shelter. He later said he was looking to make sure it was empty before lighting it ablaze.
But the tent wasn’t empty.
Charlottetown police said Paquet knew the man who was inside, who had to be taken hospital with superficial burns on his back and neck after shelter staff put out the fire and rescued him.
Jesse Douglas Richardsson Paquet, 31, was …