20th July 2012 by Jenny Makin
Interpreter fiasco at murder trial
A murder trial had to be halted temporarily
when a man translating vital evidence revealed he was only there because his
wife – the real interpreter – was too busy.
The judge suspended the case when it became
clear that Mubarak Lone was failing to translate key phrases fully and even got
the oath wrong for a Sikh witness who was giving evidence.
It was only thanks to a junior defence
barrister, who happened to speak Punjabi, that the problem was spotted.
Following an investigation it was
discovered Mr Lone was not qualified or registered.
The
fiasco can only be reported today following the conclusion of the trial of
mum-of-two Rajvinder Kaur, who was yesterday sentenced to life with a minimum
term of 11 years in prison, for battering her mother-in-law to death with a
rolling pin.
The
debacle – which delayed the case by a day, costing tens of thousands of pounds
– is the latest in a long line of problems at courts across the country since
the Government awarded the interpreter contract to Applied Language Solutions
(ALS) in a bid to save £18m.
There
have already been thousands of complaints about interpreters provided by the
firm, who either turn up late, fail to appear or are not up to the job.
Now a
high profile Government committee is launching an inquiry into the awarding of
the contract which has brought chaos to courtrooms throughout England.
The
latest problem arose at Winchester Crown Court last Friday, shortly after Mr
Lone, who turned up 45 minutes late causing the trial to be delayed, was sworn
in.
When he
attempted to translate the oath to a Sikh witness he got it wrong.
Then,
while translating for Kaur’s husband Iqbal Singh as he took the stand to give
evidence concerning his mother’s murder, Mr Lone went on to omit key words and
phrases.
After
repeated failed attempts by defence barrister Jonathan Fuller QC to have his
questions asked correctly, the judge, Mr Justice Barnett, stopped the trial.
In the
absence of the jury, Mr Lone admitted his wife had been contracted by ALS to
act as a translator, but she already had work commitments so he went in her
place.
He went
on to say he had taken the interpreter test set by ALS but had not received his
results and was not accredited.
Describing
the situation, Mr Justice Barnett told the court: “This is extremely
unfortunate, to use a classic understatement.”
However
that wasn’t the end of the matter.
When the
trial recommenced on Monday morning a similar situation unfolded when a new
female interpreter from ALS arrived – but once again she was not able to
correctly translate words and phrases.
The case
was only able to continue with the assistance of Kaur’s junior counsel, Sukhdev
Garcha.
Mr Garcha
told the Daily Echo: “I couldn’t believe the first interpreter was so woefully
inadequate and then it happened again with the second who was completely out of
her depth. She didn’t understand a lot of words and phrases and her vocabulary
was completely lacking.
“If I
hadn’t spoken up then people in the court would have thought everything was
being interpreted correctly.
“It would
have been to the detriment of our client – we could have had a miscarriage of
justice. That’s the price you pay.”
Defence
barrister Jonathan Fuller QC added: “It’s at the very heart of the justice
system because the words are the evidence. If you find, as a defence counsel,
that you are calling evidence on words that are unreliable then that is the
start of a miscarriage of justice.”
Mr
Justice Barnett declined to comment further.
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