Sarah-Jane Trent petitions Parliament to strike incoherent testimony citing PTSD

Lawyer Sarah-Jane Trent, a former associate of forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan, wants Parliament to strike her testimony before the Ad Hoc Committee investigating police corruption.

In a letter to the committee, Trent says she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and did not conduct herself in the manner she would have wanted to when she appeared before it on March 5.

But the committee believes it treated her fairly, and it never coerced her into continuing her testimony when she became overwhelmed and broke down in tears.

Sarah-Jane Trent testified about the working relationship Paul O’Sullivan had with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate and the nature of her personal interactions with its former head, Robert MacBride.

In correspondence from her lawyer, Trent has pledged to provide the committee with a forensic psychologist’s report to attest to the PTSD she says she’s been suffering since 2017.

As a result, she says she was not able to concentrate properly, nor answer the committee’s questions in a cogent manner.

But MPs say at no point did it force her to testify and that several of them came to her defence, suggesting she take a pause when she felt overwhelmed.

The African National Congress’s Khusela Sangoni said, "I think it’s a bit disingenuous that she would come now, a couple of weeks after the fact, and want to raise an issue that she may have been coerced in any manner."

ActionSA’s Dereleen James says she attempted to calm Trent down in the bathroom during a break, and she was given the opportunity by the committee to opt out of continuing with her testimony.

"We can’t be striking anything off the record. She’s made her bed, and she needs to lie on it."

Besides, the committee says it’s not within its powers to scrap testimony, and it will instead consider her latest correspondence during its deliberations.