Editing Plea (section)

=== "Unambiguous plea" ===
A defendant who enters a plea of guilty must do so unequivocally. A guilty plea which is "imperfect, unfinished or otherwise ambiguous"<ref>R v Ingleson [1915] 1 KB 512</ref> will not legitimate and should the court proceed to sentence on such a plea, there exist grounds for ordering a retrial or quashing the conviction.

In ''R v Atkinson'',<ref>R v Atkinson [2021] EWCA Crim 153</ref> the Court of Appeal held that, where a defendant entered a plea of 'Guilty, but I intended to defend myself' this could be held to be an unequivocal plea where the judge had clarified any ambiguity before accepting the plea.