Paul O’Sullivan vows to put Trent’s ‘abductors’ in jail

Controversial private investigator Paul O’Sullivan on Monday vowed to put in jail South African Police Service (SAPS) officers who were involved the arrest of his assistant, Sarah Jane Trent, at the weekend, saying he intended to open a case of abduction against them.

Speaking to Talk Radio 702 after Trent was arrested for allegedly pretending to be an official of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), O’Sullivan said she was constrained with a cable tie and driven around for hours in a police vehicle without her family and friends knowing of her whereabouts.

“… We’re opening a case against them for abduction because of what they did. After they tied her hands with a cable tie, they drove around in a car for three hours … the last time those sort of things used to go on was when [P. W.]  Botha was president, John Vorster was the president. We having apartheid bullies because they were hired by the national party,” he charged.

Trent and O’Sullivan have been working with Ipid investigators on charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice against acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane, who he believes was behind Trent’s arrest in order to obstruct their investigation.

On Sunday night, police reached an agreement to release Trent on R5 000 bail shortly before 9pm after she launched an urgent court application for her release.

ALSO READ: Paul O’Sullivan’s assistant Trent out on bail

She was detained at Kameeldrift Police Station, east of Pretoria, on Friday.

“These people are the last trench of police, and they seem to be enjoying apartheid-style tactics, and it’s going to put them in jail because I vow to put every single one of the people who were involved in her arrest [in jail]. I vow that they will go to prison for what they did,” O’Sullivan added.

Hawks boss Lieutenant-General Ntlemeza Mthandazo Ntlemeza claimed in a statement at the weekend the PI was using people planted in government and the media to destabilise the country.

“O’Sullivan is prepared and will stop at nothing in his quest to tarnish the image of the Hawks, the integrity of the justice system and reverse all the gains the country has attained post 1994,” Ntlemeza’s spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said.

Ntlemeza faces charges of racketeering and defeating the ends of justice lodged by O’Sullivan with the Ipid.

Phahlane ‘behind Trent’s arrest’

“Of course we know it’s Phahlane because these people that opened a fake dock against Sarah Jane Trent for allegedly impersonating an Ipid officer … you see what Phahlane has been doing, he’s trying to disrupt the investigation,” O’Sullivan alleged.

Asked if a private citizen should be working with the Ipid in their investigations, he said: “If somebody comes and steals money from you and they commit a fraud against you, and it’s a complex matter and you have the skills, remember I’m a certified fraud examiner. I’m have been good standing for many, many years.

“And I’m a forensics specialist, I have the skills which Phahlane is afraid of. Any dirty cop in this country is afraid of my skills, so I have those skills.

“The fact is the criminal justice system in South Africa has been taken out of our criminals, and for the most part they all have some form of relationship with [President Jacob] Zuma, who himself should be on trial for 783 counts of fraud and corruption,” he said.