Courts: Children
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what process is followed if an individual claims to be a child in a court proceeding and is convicted and sentenced on that basis, but it is subsequently revealed that they are an adult.
Answered by Sarah Sackman
Where a person's age is in question in criminal proceedings, it is for the court to determine their age on the basis of the evidence available. This is set out in section 405 of the Sentencing Act 2020, section 150(4) of the Magistrates Court Act 1980, and section 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1982.
If the court has made that determination and sentenced the individual on that basis, case law has established that the sentence remains valid even if the individual’s age is later shown to be different (see Brown [1989] 5 WLUK 246 and Steed [1990] 5 WLUK 72). We are not aware of any cases where an individual has been convicted and sentenced as a child but subsequently found to be a child.
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