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Dunfermline childminder jailed for abandoning children in her care
Developed over time first seen 1 day ago
Amanda Mathewson, a 55-year-old childminder, has been jailed for two years after admitting to wilfully neglecting and abandoning children in her care. Sheriff John MacRitchie said she had grossly abused a position of trust, knowingly creating circumstances in which distress and injury were foreseeable.
Between September 2023 and August 2024, Mathewson cared for more children than permitted: she was allowed eight at a time, but 27 were found at her home on one occasion. Children, including babies, were left unsupervised, shut in rooms or strapped into prams upstairs; she also hid children from parents and organisations and arranged for parents to text before collecting them. The case came to light after parents found children alone and distressed at her home.
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In short
- Mathewson was jailed for two years for neglecting children in her care.
- She exceeded her limit of eight children, with 27 found at her home.
- Parents discovered children alone and distressed in August 2024.
How this story developed
- 1 day ago Police found 15 children under 12 in Mathewson’s care when they arrested her, while parents had reported children coming home hungry, thirsty or in dirty nappies despite a recent “very good” Care Inspectorate rating.
- 1 day ago Amanda Mathewson was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting she had wilfully neglected and abandoned children in her care, at times keeping 27 children at her Dunfermline home despite being permitted to look after eight.
Full account
Amanda Mathewson, 55, has been sentenced to two years in prison after admitting that she wilfully neglected, abandoned and exposed children in her care to conditions likely to cause suffering or harm. The offences involved children under 16 and took place at several addresses in Dunfermline and elsewhere between September 2023 and August 2024. The reports say some of the children were under a year old.
Mathewson was registered to care for up to eight children at a time, subject to further age-related limits. At one point, 27 children were found at her Dunfermline home. Some were reportedly alone in the garden, while others were strapped into prams in an upstairs room. Parents raised concerns about children returning home hungry, thirsty or in dirty nappies, and about some becoming distressed when taken to the house.
The case came to police attention after two parents were told Mathewson had been seen on a school run without their child. They checked the school and then went to her home, where they found children alone, shut away and screaming. Prosecutors said she had used measures to conceal the number of children she was caring for, including asking parents to text before collecting them and hiding children in rooms. At sentencing at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Sheriff John MacRitchie described her conduct as a grave breach of trust and said the risk of harm was foreseeable.
The reports also raise questions about oversight. GB News says the Care Inspectorate had rated Mathewson’s service “very good” across its measures after an unannounced inspection in August 2023, shortly before the offending began. It also reports that the inspectorate has since updated procedures following feedback from affected parents, and that a learning review is planned by Fife’s child protection committee. The other report focuses more on parents’ accounts and the circumstances that led to the arrest, including the number and ages of children in Mathewson’s care when she was arrested.
Where outlets differ
From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:
The first report dates the offences to 7 September 2023–26 August 2024 and describes offending at multiple addresses; GB News frames the guilty plea around her home in Dunfermline in August 2024.
GB News gives more detail about the Care Inspectorate’s favourable August 2023 inspection, subsequent procedural changes and the planned learning review. The first report instead gives more detail about parents’ concerns, the discovery at the house and the number and ages of children present when police arrested Mathewson.
The first report says she was permitted to care for eight children, with limits of six under 12 and one under 12 months. GB News describes the licence as covering eight children under 16 and quotes additional limits, including no more than three who had not started primary school.
Explained simply
In Scotland, childminders care for children in their own homes, and must follow rules on how many children they can look after. The Care Inspectorate checks and rates childcare services, while parents rely on those safeguards and on the person caring for their children.
Amanda Mathewson was a registered childminder in Dunfermline. The case involved children under 16, including babies, and raised questions about how parents and childcare organisations were given an inaccurate picture of the care being provided. The allegations span a period when her service had recently received a high inspection rating.
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Read the full article at the source →
Originally published by Daily Mail as “Childminder who left 27 children in her home alone and unsupervised is jailed for two years”.