Court of Appeal for Ontario

R. v. Rayworth

Date: 2001-10-19

Counsel: Anil K. Kapoor, for the appellant.

(C33774)

Reasons for Decision

[1] By the Court: An accused who seeks to set aside a guilty plea as involuntary faces a strong presumption that the plea was voluntary. The appellant's affidavit provides the sole support for his claim that he was pressured to plead guilty by his lawyer. Based on that affidavit it seems that the lawyer certainly strongly recommended a guilty plea. The appellant however decided to plead guilty for a number of reasons including what he considered to be the benefit of a certain result. The affidavit does not speak to the kind of pressure which could render a plea involuntary. Furthermore, there is strong reason to doubt the veracity of the appellant's affidavit. He made no mention of pressure from his lawyer to the psychiatrist and he has a long and well documented history of denying culpability for his criminal conduct. The trial lawyer denied any undue pressure.

[2] The trial judge did not err in refusing to strike the plea. The conviction appeal is dismissed.

[3] The trial judge gave the appellant credit for pretrial custody although not the 2:1 credit often given by trial judges. He had a discretion as to the credit to be given (s. 719(3)) and we see no error in principle in the exercise of that discretion. Leave to appeal sentence is granted, but the appeal is dismissed.

Appeal dismissed.