Confession

1. A confession is an admission made at anytime by the accused person stating or suggesting the
inference that he committed that offence as defined in s.17(2).
2. S.21 provides that the accused’s confession is relevant and can be used against the maker,
unless it is excluded under s.24, 25, 26 or made as a result of oppression.

i. s.24, renders a confession irrelevant where it is caused by an inducement, threat or promise.

- Promise made having reference to the charge against the accused
- Proceeding from a person in authority
- Where the accused believes that he would gain any advantage or avoid any evil of a temporal nature in
reference to the proceeding against him.

ii. Oppression, this exclusion adopted in the case of Dato Mokhtar Hashim v PP, referred to cases such
as R v Priestly, R v Fulling

- R v Priestly, defined ‘oppression’ as something which tends to sap the free will of someone, which is
required for confession to be voluntary.
- The question the judge has to ask himself is whether the conduct of interrogation was such to have
sapped X’s free will, such as to make his confession involuntary.

iii. s.25, Confession made to police officers below the rank of inspector cannot be admissible.

iv. s.26, a confession made in the custody of the police will be irrelevant.
- Eng Sin, the court said that the accused was in the custody of police the moment he could not go
where he liked.
- Here, X is clearly in custody of police.
- Hence, confession will be excluded.

s.27

3. Here, since X’s confession will be excluded. The prosecution may wish to admit part of X’s
statement under s.27. Where the detailed confession from X led to the discovery of a concealed object
connected to the crime, that specific statement may be admissible under s.27.

- Conditions of admissibility must be satisfied as per Mohd Zainuddin Raujan-

i. Information was supplied by the accused after or during the commission of an offence
ii. Accused was under the custody of the police at the time the information was supplied
iii. The information supplied has caused the discovery of fact
iv. Fact or thing discovered must have been concealed, PP v Mohd Farid Sukis
v. the police have no prior knowledge of the fact or thing concealed.

- When these conditions are satisfied, the information which led to the discovery of the object will be
admissible, not the entirety of the confession.
- Voluntariness is not a prerequisite before the evidence can be admitted under s.27.
- However, the Court may exercise its discretion to exclude the evidence if the prejudicial effect
outweighs the probative value