Second policeman in Dominica charged with murder of teen girl

ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Police officer Joshua Hamlet has been remanded to prison until October 2, as he became the second member of the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force (CDPF) to be charged with murder following the discovery of the body of a 16-year-old girl who had been reported missing last month.

Hamlet appeared in a magistrate’s court in Roseau on Monday, charged with the murder of Jerbiah Paul, who had been reported missing since July 24, 2026.

He will next appear in a magistrate’s court in Portsmouth on October 2.

Last Thursday, 23-year-old police officer Jean-Luc Langlais was also slapped with a charge of murdering Paul, whose decomposing body was discovered on a precipice in Capuchin 24 hours earlier by members of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS).

Like Langlais, Hamlet was not required to enter a plea since it’s an indictable matter.

They have both been remanded to the State Prison and will make their court appearance on October 2 in Portsmouth.

Earlier, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit called for Dominicans to allow the legal process to take its course as he extended his “heartfelt sympathies to the family and friends of the young girl who lost her life in an unfortunate and tragic way”.

“Such an incident is not something that we would wish on anybody, or we welcome in our country. And so I can appreciate the trauma and the heartache which her family has been experiencing over the last several days,” Skerrit said, commending the police for what “I consider to have been a very professional and methodological and systematic investigation that was carried out”.

He said that while it is unfortunate that somebody is dead, “but it’s also important that we look forward to justice being served and let the process carry itself. The courts are there; the judicial system is there. I will leave it to the police to do the work, and I’ll leave it to the courts to do its work,” he added.

Meanwhile, the group Circle of Friends Inc. is calling for a stronger, coordinated approach to protecting children and young people across Dominica.

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