ABSTRACT
A voluntary plea has two elements: the defendant must understand to what he is pleading; and he must make the plea of his own free will. He must not be pressured by anyone to plead guilty.
A defendant who through some disability, such as ignorance of the language or extreme youth, does not understand to what he is pleading cannot be said to have made a voluntary plea. His choice was not of his own free will. Here, the defendant is not suffering from a mental disorder, but at the time of his plea he was equally unaware of the nature and consequences of his plea. R v Iqbal Begum (1991) 93 Cr App R 96 is a good example of where the defendant did not know to what she was pleading. In that case the defendant, who was from Pakistan, understood very little English; although she had lived in England for a number of years, she had been virtually housebound. She was charged with murder and gave her instructions to her solicitor through a Pakistani accountant who acted as interpreter. She subsequently pleaded guilty to murder. On appeal, the defence contended that it was never made clear to her in language she understood, the difference between murder and manslaughter and she could have had a defence of provocation if she had understood. The Court of Appeal emphasised that it had often been pointed out that unless a person understands the full implication of the charge to which he pleads so that he can give instructions to his lawyer, the court cannot be sure that he pleaded with a free and understanding mind. On the facts of the case, the inadequacy of the interpretation was such that there was a lack of communication with the defendant. She did not fully understand what was said to her.
