Presumption and determination of age

(1) Where a person, whether charged with an offence or not, is brought before any court otherwise than for the purpose of giving evidence and it appears to the court that he is a child or young person, the court shall make due inquiry as to the age of that person, and for that purpose shall take such evidence as may be forthcoming at the hearing of the case, but an order or judgment of the court shall not be invalidated by any subsequent proof that the age of that person has not been correctly stated to the court, and the age presumed or declared by the court to be the age of the person so brought before it 21 shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be the true age of that person. (2) Where it appears to the court that the person so brought before it is of the age of eighteen years or upwards, that person shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed not to be a child or rules.