Sarah-Jane Trent reveals ‘social relationship’ with former IPID head Robert McBride

Paul O’Sullivan’s former assistant Sarah-Jane Trent appeared before Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee, where she broke down multiple times during her testimony. Sarah-Jane Trent, an attorney and former assistant of certified fraud examiner Paul O’Sullivan confirmed to the Ad Hoc Committee that she had been in a “social relationship” with former Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) head Robert McBride. Testifying before the Ad Hoc Committee on Thursday, Trent initially said it was a social relationship.

“I don’t know what word to put. For a brief time, we went into a relationship. It was not infiltration,” she said.

Responding to committee Chairperson Soviet Lekganyane, Trent said they saw each other every now and again. “There was an attraction to each other, but there was no relationship that went on. I don’t really know how more to explain.

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It was not sort of I love you and I will do anything for you.” Lekganyane described the relationship as “friends with benefits”. She later told the Ad Hoc Committee that during their “social relationship”, they had meals together and confirmed they had been locked up in a private together “not too often”. During her testimony, Trent testified that she started working for O’Sullivan’s Forensic for Justice, which opened cases on corruption in the criminal justice system. She subsequently joinedPaul O’Sullivanand Associates and also became a director at Forensic for Justice.

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