Police Cautions and Admissibility of Evidence: Does Failure to Understand the Police Caution Render an Accused Person’s Admission Involuntary?

There are a handful of Western Australian cases (decided over the past couple of years) in which it has been argued that an admission was not voluntary, and thus should be inadmissible, because the accused person did not understand the police caution given to them. That is, the argument goes that the person did not understand that they had a right to remain silent, so they were not speaking voluntarily. An analysis of the cases reveals that failure to understand the caution will not make an admission involuntary. However, it will be relevant to the exercise of the fairness discretion.