Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975

313Mode of charging certain offences committed against two or more children under 17

(1)Where a person is charged with committing any of the offences mentioned in Schedule 1 to this Act in respect of two or more children under the age of 17 years, the same complaint may charge the offence in respect of all or any of them, but the person charged shall not, if he is convicted, be liable to a separate penalty in respect of each child except upon separate complaints.

(2)The same complaint may also charge any person as having the custody, charge, or care, alternatively or together, and may charge him 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 convicted, be liable to a separate penalty for each.

(3)When any offence mentioned in Schedule 1 to this Act charged against any person is a continuous offence, it shall not be necessary to specify in the complaint the date of the acts constituting the offence.