A veteran Dunfermline childminder has admitted to a shocking case of neglect after leaving 27 children—nearly four times her legal limit—entirely unsupervised at her home.
Amanda Mathewson, 55, pleaded guilty at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to charges of child neglect and abandonment. The self-employed childminder, who ran her business for three decades, had vastly exceeded her registration limits. When police arrested her, she was caring for two babies under a year old, ten pre-school children, and 15 kids under the age of 12.
How the neglect was uncovered
The scale of her operation unravelled when two suspicious parents decided to investigate why their kids weren’t with Mathewson on her usual school run. They drove to her property in Fife, where they heard a child screaming and found five youngsters waiting alone in the garden. One child told them Mathewson had ordered them to stay outside and that no adults were in the house.
Inside the unlocked house, the parents discovered an even more distressing scene. A child was weeping hysterically under the kitchen table. Upstairs, nine toddlers and babies under five were packed into a bedroom. Two of them were strapped tightly into prams. While none of the children suffered physical injuries, police said they were highly distressed. Ring doorbell footage later revealed this was the second time that day the children had been abandoned. Mathewson admitted to police that they had been left alone for at least half an hour.
A pattern of systemic deception
It soon became clear this wasn’t an isolated incident. During the subsequent police investigation, several children revealed that being left home alone was a regular occurrence. Parents also recalled their children’s growing reluctance to attend, with many crying during drop-offs. There were physical red flags, too. Kids frequently came home ravenously thirsty, in soiled nappies, or with dried feces in their underwear.
To keep her lucrative, over-capacity business secret, Mathewson went to great lengths:
- She played loud music to drown out the noise of dozens of children.
- She strictly forbade parents from stepping inside her house during drop-offs.
- She claimed a fictional “child-minding friend” helped her when parents asked questions.
- She hid children during outings, such as taking only three out of nine children to a church Christmas party and sending generic festive photos to the parents of the kids left behind.
A failure of oversight
The revelations came as a shock to the community, especially given Mathewson’s professional standing. Just a year before her arrest, an unannounced Care Inspectorate visit rated her service as “very good.” The regulator has since expressed deep concern, calling it a highly distressing case and confirming they have updated their inspection procedures. Police Scotland described the case as highly complex and reiterated their commitment to safeguarding vulnerable children.