Dunfermline Childminder Admits Leaving 27 Children Unsupervised as Parents Made Shocking Discovery

A self-employed childminder from Dunfermline has pleaded guilty to neglect and abandoning children in her care after it emerged she had left more than two dozen youngsters unsupervised at her home, a court has heard.

Amanda Mathewson, 55, admitted the offences at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, where prosecutors detailed a troubling sequence of events that unfolded after two suspicious parents decided to investigate for themselves.

The court heard that Mathewson, who had operated as a registered childminder for three decades, was looking after 27 children at her property — a figure that far exceeded the maximum number she was licensed to care for. According to prosecutors, she was permitted to look after no more than eight children at any one time, meaning she had 19 more children in her home than her registration allowed.

The case has raised serious questions about oversight of childminding services in Scotland, particularly given that a Care Inspectorate report from around a year before her arrest had rated aspects of her provision as "very good" — the second-highest rating available on the quality scale.

Procurator fiscal Vicki Bell told the court that the investigation began when two parents grew suspicious after being told their children were not present while Mathewson carried out a school run. Rather than accept the explanation, the parents decided to check the situation themselves and went secretly to the school, where they discovered their children were not with Mathewson, despite being officially in her care at the time.

The parents then made their way to Mathewson's home, where the situation they encountered was far more serious than they could have anticipated. The court heard they heard a child screaming and, upon arriving at the property, found five unattended children in the garden. One of those children informed the witnesses that there were no adults inside the house and that Mathewson had instructed them to wait in the garden.

Concerned for the welfare of the children, the parents approached the door of the house to check whether any adults were present. As they did so, they heard another child screaming hysterically from inside the property. The door was unlocked, and when the witnesses entered, they discovered a child crying underneath the kitchen table.

The distressing scene did not end there. A further nine children, all of them under the age of five, were found in an upstairs bedroom, with two of the youngsters strapped into prams. The court was told that the children appeared distressed but were fortunately uninjured.

Police were called to the property, and when officers attended, Mathewson told them the children had been left alone for at least 30 minutes. However, ring doorbell footage obtained during the investigation showed that this was actually the second occasion that day on which the children had been left inside the house without supervision.

The scale of the operation Mathewson was running became clearer as prosecutors outlined the ages of the children involved. At the time of her arrest, she had 15 children aged under 12 in her care, along with 10 children who were below primary school age and two children under the age of one.

Mathewson admitted wilfully neglecting, abandoning and exposing children to a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to their health. The court heard that she had offered childcare places for more children than she could reasonably provide care for at the time.

Licensing conditions attached to her registration, set out in a Care Inspectorate report published in August 2023, restricted her to caring for a maximum of eight children at any one time. Those conditions specified that no more than six of the children could be under the age of 12, no more than three could have started primary school, and no more than one could be under 12 months old. Those limits were breached dramatically on the day in question.

The court heard that Mathewson had been arrested by police following allegations of cruelty towards children, and that her offending took place at a number of locations in Dunfermline and elsewhere in Fife. She had provided childcare services at her home in Dunfermline for children under the age of 16.

Sheriff John MacRitchie deferred sentencing until 6 November to allow background reports to be prepared. Mathewson's bail was continued in the meantime, meaning she will remain at liberty until her next court appearance.

The case highlights the vulnerability of young children who depend entirely on the adults responsible for their care, and the potential consequences when that trust is breached. It also raises questions about how a childminder with 30 years of experience could have accumulated so many children in her care without the situation being detected earlier, particularly given the positive assessment recorded by inspectors roughly a year before her arrest.

Regulatory bodies and local authorities are likely to examine the circumstances closely, as the case will inevitably prompt scrutiny of how registration conditions are monitored and enforced. For the families involved, the court proceedings have confirmed that their suspicions were well founded, and that their decision to investigate independently uncovered a situation in which multiple children were left without adequate supervision.

Sentencing has been scheduled for 6 November, when the sheriff will consider the background reports before deciding on an appropriate disposal. Until then, Mathewson remains on bail, and the full consequences of her admissions will not be known until the court delivers its final decision later this year.