ROSEAU, Dominica, Aug 24, CMC -Police officer Rennick Stevens and 21-year-old Nyoka James were on Monday remand into custody after they appeared in a magistrate’s court lined to the disappearance and murder of a 16-year-old girl.

Both have been charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the death of 16-year-old Jerbiah Paul.

The police say that on August 7 James gave a false statement to the police who were at the time investigating one of their colleagues in connection with the disappearance of Paul. The defence had argued that their client had committed no crime and should therefore be released.

The defence argued that the evidence against James were untruthful, but the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Sherma Dalrymple, said the evidence against James were strong.

The court ruled said that it would await the results of an analysis of James’s phone being undertaken by the Barbados-based Regional  Security  System (RSS) and set October 2 as the date for her next court appearance.

With regards to Stevens, the third police officer to be charged in connection with Paul’s disappearance and death, he was also denied bail and will return to court on October 2.

Last week, police officer, Joshua Hamlet,  the second member of the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force (CDPF) to be charged with Paul’s  murder, was remanded to prison Earlier,  23-year-old police officer, Jean-Luc Langlais, was also slapped with a charge or murdering Paul, whose decomposing body was discovered in a precipice in Capuchin, north of here.

They will both reappear in court here on October 2, this year.

Meantime, the police have confirmed that an autopsy was performed on the remains found at Capuchin and are now awaiting the pathologist’s report as to the cause of death. DNA analysis has also been sent to a forensic laboratory overseas for identification purposes.