(1)Where a person is charged with committing any of the offences mentioned in Schedule 1 in respect—
(a)of two or more children;
(b)of a child together with one or more than one young person;
(c)of two or more young persons;
(d)of a young person together with one or more than one child; or
(e)of two or more children together with two or more young persons;
the same complaint or summons may charge the offence in respect of all or any of them, but the person shall not, if he is summarily convicted, be liable to a separate penalty in respect of each child or young person except upon separate complaints.
(2)[F1The same complaint or summons may charge any person] with the offences of assault, ill-treatment, neglect, abandonment or exposure, together or separately, and may charge him with committing all or any of those offences in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to health, alternatively or together, but when those offences are charged together the person charged shall not, if he is summarily convicted, be liable to a separate penalty for each.
(3)When any offence mentioned in Schedule 1 charged against any person is a continuous offence, it shall not be necessary to specify in the complaint, summons, or indictment the dates of the acts constituting the offence, except that, where the offence is one to which[F2 Article 19(1)(a) of the Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981] applies, the complaint and the summons shall specify that the cause of complaint still continues or ceased to continue within the six months immediately preceding the date of the complaint.