ANT KATZ

The State alleges that O’Sullivan kidnapped Bobroff whistle-blower Cora van der Merwe by threatening that if she did not accompany him, she would not see her children again. The leak eventually uncovered an alleged massive R170 million fraud of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) committed by Ronald Bobroff and his son Darren, both of whom are understood to be taking refuge in Australia.

O’Sullivan gained recognition for bringing down disgraced police commissioner Jackie Selebi and Czech criminal Radovan Krejcir.

Then a candidate attorney at RBP, Cora Van der Merwe was suspended from the law firm after she apparently gave confidential information to O’Sullivan, on unlawful practices at the firm in October 2014.

RIGHT: Forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan is facing a host of criminal charges which he says are spurious

RBP was placed under curatorship in March and the father-and-son team of Ronald and Darren Bobroff are currently fugitives in Australia.

O’Sullivan has been a constant and ongoing thorn in the side of the police and is now claimed that “certain factions” among the police have begun persecuting him on spurious charges.

He has asked the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to investigate the “gross abuse of power” and the “monstrous abuse of my constitutional rights” due to his having called the appointment of the police’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI, or Hawks) Gauteng head Major-General Prince Mokotedi “unlawful”.

The war between General Mokotedi and O’Sullivan goes back to the days of the late police commissioner Jackie Selebi – Mokotedi testified for Selebi.

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‘I’m not your boy’

O’Sullivan told IPID in his complaint regarding the Bobroff whistle-blower: “Curiously, the alleged kidnapping took place in October 2014, yet Van der Merwe only comes forward with her case 19 months later, being a few weeks after I was arrested on the Section 26 B allegations.”

The Hawks are now investigating O’Sullivan’s allegations of “biased and unlawful actions” by their Gauteng head, Mokotedi.

An interesting exchange occurred in Randburg Magistrate’s Court last Friday where O’Sullivan appeared briefly for two separate cases. Prosecuting advocate, Jabulani Mlotshwa, and O’Sullivan’s defence lawyer, Darryl Furman, got into a verbal wrangle after the latter told the prosecutor he did not have the docket against O’Sullivan. He had asked “for the docket four times” said Furman. “Are you shouting at me? Are you shouting at me? I’m not your boy!” retorted advocate Mlotshwa.

O’Sullivan jumped into the argument, saying he was going to report Mlotshwa for misconduct. “I’ve opened a docket against you; I’m going to report you! This is the problem when you have criminals running the justice system. I’m not going to take this crap,” said a furious O’Sullivan.

“How do you expect me to run a trial without the docket?” asked Furman. Mlotshwa snapped: “You think you can intimidate me like you intimidate the complainants? Threaten what you like.”

The spat took place just before Magistrate Gail Pretorius entered the courtroom for the first case, where O’Sullivan is being charged for fraud for allegedly misrepresenting himself. This is the fourth criminal case opened against the forensic investigator.

O’Sullivan and a former staffer, Melissa Naidu, were appearing on kidnapping, extortion and fraud charges relating to their questioning Bobroffs’ Van der Merwe, about RAF abuses. According to the evidence, the words “Help me!!!” form the beginning of a string of panicked text messages between Van der Merwe and her lawyer as she was driven by O’Sullivan and Naidu to the forensic consultant’s offices in 2014.

The duo was investigating a leak of information from the chambers of Ronald Bobroff & Partners.

In her statement, Van der Merwe said O’Sullivan had told her if she did not accompany him and Naidu, she would spend the night in jail and there was “a possibility that I would not see my children.” Surmising he was a policeman and “terrified”, Van der Merwe said she went with O’Sullivan, who has denied this and said Van der Merwe went with him willingly.

The case was postponed to September 8 for the defence to obtain copies of the docket. O’Sullivan is well-known for using bad language in public. Two recent examples:

• Last month, on board a plane from Heathrow airport, O’Sullivan sent an SMS to News24 on hearing SA police may be waiting to arrest him at the airport for allegedly contravening Section 26B of the Citizenship Act. (the dual citizen had left the country on his Irish passport and was the first person ever in South Africa to be charged for the offence): “I’m coming home and I’m going to fight these criminals with badges and beat them. I’m an Irish South African, and these crooks, led by dirty cops, have pissed in my beer. No one pisses in an Irishman’s beer.”
• Independent Online last week quoted O’Sullivan jumping into an argument between his lawyer and prosecutor advocate Jabulani Mlotshwa: “I’ve opened a docket against you; I’m going to report you! This is the problem when you have criminals running the justice system. I’m not going to take this crap,” said a furious O’Sullivan.

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