VIDEO: Teen charged over stabbing of Alia McDowall

Doriel Duncan, a 17-year-old student of Bethel High School, has been granted EC$15,000 bail with one surety after being charged with wounding with intent over the stabbing of Alia McDowall in November 2024.

McDowall, a 17-year-old student-athlete of the Central Leeward Secondary School, died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Sunday of complications resulting from the stabbing injury.

Duncan, a resident of Barrouallie, was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge and was ordered to report to the Barrouallie Police Station on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The accused, who is represented by counsel Grant Connell, was ordered to return to court on April 2, when a preliminary inquiry is slated to begin.

McDowall, also a Barrouallie resident, had been battling complications resulting from the stabbing incident and had been repeatedly hospitalised before her last admission last week.

McDowall’s family has complained about the time police took to bring a charge, which limits the type of charge that can be brought after she died.

The “year-and-a-day” means that prosecutors cannot charge Duncan with murder or manslaughter in connection with McDowall’s death.

McDowall’s family has told iWitness News that despite a charge being brought, the authorities’ handling of the case gives them little hope that justice will be served.

“I honestly think that the system and the authorities need to do better. A case like this, it should not have been a case where we basically have to track down what is happening,” one of McDowall’s close female relatives told iWitness News on Monday.

“Even if we don’t get to speak to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecution) or whoever’s in charge, we understand that, but the entire time that Alia was in the hospital, they (the police) didn’t follow up on her. They didn’t follow up to know how she was progressing,” the relative said.