O’Sullivan case postponed

Private investigator Paul O’Sullivan, who is facing several charges, appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The case was postponed to November 8.

He was appearing alongside his assistant and co-accused, attorney Sarah-Jane Trent, and two Independent Police Investigative Directorate investigators, Mandlakayise Mahlangu and Temane Abram Binang.

The four face charges of fraud, intimidation, extortion and conspiracy. Advocate Motlatlhwa Mashuga said the state could not proceed with the case because it had failed to download data from O’Sullivan’s phones, which were confiscated.

He said they did not have the necessary software and asked the court to postpone the case to November 8.

Advocate Wilco Botha, acting on behalf of Mahlangu and Binang, said should the state not be ready to make a full disclosure at the next court date, he would bring an application to have the matter scrapped from the court roll.

He said his clients should not have been subpoenaed in the first place until the state had finished its investigation.

O’Sullivan echoed this and said he and Trent will also ask that the matter be removed from the court roll if the state is not ready to proceed at their next court appearance.

The private investigator is also the complainant in a fraud and corruption case against former acting national police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane.

“I think by the time they’re ready to put me on trial, Phahlane will be in jail.”

O’Sullivan added: “What we have is criminals with badges and clowns with guns running the criminal justice system and soon it will come to an end, because in December we will have a new president and hopefully the first step he will take is to reorganise the police and the criminal justice system.”