McBride gets access to his daughter

The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court yesterday granted Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) head Robert McBride, who appeared briefly on charges of abuse and assault, access to his youngest daughter over the Christmas season, but warned him to stay away from the victim and other family members.

McBride has been accused by his 15-year-old daughter of abuse and assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, which allegedly happened on August 19 this year.

He was subsequently arrested and charged and released on R10 000 bail with the conditions that he has no contact with his children and other family members.

Yesterday he requested the court to relax his bail conditions and give him access to his youngest daughter over December.

This youngest daughter is also a witness in the criminal case against him.

The court ruled in his favour saying that the prosecution is not opposed to his request.

The court granted him unlimited access to his youngest daughter and said it was not detrimental to justice.

The court granted him access stating that “in all fairness to McBride, there is no statement yet obtained from the witness”.

However, the court warned McBride not to discuss the matter with his daughter and not to contact the victim or the other witnesses.

He is also barred from contacting or intimidating other witnesses, including his 15-year old daughter and other members of the family, directly or indirectly.

McBride previously said he was merely “admonished his daughter on the day of the incident.

In a statement he said his daughter started being influenced by people who had failed by other means to get rid of him and he claimed the case was opened by a woman who had unsuccessfully asked him to quash a traffic fine.

He said he had become concerned about his daughter’s school marks and “somewhat rebellious” behaviour, and had admonished her, but never assaulted her.

The case has been postponed to December 18. McBride said he had no comment.

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