Second cop to be charged with murder of 16-y-o girl in Dominica

ROSEAU, Dominica, (CMC) — Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has called on his countrymen to allow the legal process to take its course as the police say another of their colleagues is due to appear in court this week, charged with murder following the discovery of the body of a 16-year-old girl who was reported missing last month. Last Thursday, 23-year-old police officer Jean-Luc Langlais appeared in a magistrate's court charged with the murder of Jerbiah Paul, whose decomposing body was discovered in a precipice in Capuchin, 24 hours earlier. Her body had been discovered by members of the Barbados-based Regional Security System (RSS).

Langlais has been remanded to the State Prison until October 2, this year. The prosecution is alleging that on July 24, 2026, Langlais murdered 16-year-old Paul. He was not required to enter a plea since the charge of murder is an indictable offence.

The police said that the other officer had been arrested at the Douglas Charles Airport last week on his return to the state. The police gave no further details except to say that he will appear in court where the charge of murder will be read out to him. Meanwhile, Skerrit, speaking on the state-owned DBS Radio on Monday, said 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 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 “a very professional and methodical and systematic investigation that was carried out”. He said that while it is unfortunate that somebody is dead, “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.