STV NewsA mum whose three children were neglected while being looked after by an experienced childminder has said the ordeal has changed their lives forever.
Amanda Mathewson was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to neglect and abandoning children in her care.
The court heard that between September 2023 and August 2024, the 55-year-old offered childminding services for far more children than she could reasonably care for at the same time, leaving some alone at her home.
When arrested, Mathewson had 27 children in her care, including 15 under 12, ten under primary school age and two under one.
She was a well-known figure in her local community who had gained the trust of parents, but Mathewson was later revealed to be an accomplished liar who manipulated parents into leaving their children in her care – only for them to be shut in cupboards, strapped in prams and abandoned.
One parent, who spoke to STV News anonymously, said she and her husband thought they had “won the childcare lottery” when they managed to secure spaces with Mathewson.
She said: “When we first needed childcare for our three children, they were primary school and nursery-aged, and a baby. A friend of ours recommended Amanda to us – a lot of her children came to her via word of mouth in the community.
STV News“We got in contact, and she told us initially she didn’t have any space. Days later, she said a space had come up, and she could take them, especially the baby, for full days.”
During a meeting at her house, Mathewson was described as being friendly, kind and outgoing. The parents found her home spotless and organised and felt she interacted well with the children there.
“We just trusted her immediately; we thought we had won the lottery when it came to childcare,” the mum added.
Mathewson was arrested at her home in August 2024 following allegations of cruelty.
It wasn’t until days later that news of the arrest reached parents through social media.
“The shock that I felt was unlike anything I’ve ever known,” the mum told STV News. “I was completely devastated. There was no warning, no clues. To this day, I still can’t quite really believe it.
“It was a little bit like a bereavement; she felt like a member of our extended family. The person she presented us with doesn’t exist and never existed. We’ve had to wrap our heads around that and begin to unpick actually who she was and what she did to our children.”
In the days after Mathews was arrested, the woman’s children began to disclose things that they had experienced.
She explained: “We know that there was a system in place where the babies and younger children were placed upstairs in one room, and an older child, so my middle daughter, who was five, would be stationed at the door to make sure none of the babies escaped.
“My daughter was effectively in charge, making sure they stayed up there and stayed quiet.
“The older kids, aged seven or eight, would go into the cupboard, a utility room, and they would sit around on the floor with iPads just playing, being fed crisps and doughnuts.
STV News“To this day, my older children don’t accept that there was anything wrong; they will say that they miss going, and it was because they were given the chance to play on their screens all day and given junk food.
“There were no rules other than staying out of sight. There was a rule that when the doorbell rang, they had to go into hiding places.
“Only the children whose parent it was were allowed to come out. It was completely normalised to the children to the extent they didn’t understand that was something they should talk to us about.
“Our youngest was a baby and couldn’t speak, and that is one of the worst bits. She had no voice.”
Following the revelations, the family decided to undergo private drug testing on their youngest daughter – convinced that there was no way their vibrant and active one-year-old would be easily left alone for hours.
The test came back clear.
“In a way, that was hard because it means she was just left to scream and cry for hours without us knowing. To know that about your baby is utterly heartbreaking. She lives so close by. I could’ve gone and got her.
“I think our youngest has been most affected; she was there between the ages of one and three. Those are key years for forming attachments and learning about relationships.
“She is one of the most clingy children I’ve ever come across. She’s nervous on her own, she needs to know where we are. She has a few quirky behaviours. She won’t come out of her bedroom herself. She doesn’t know that she’s allowed to come out of her room, even though we’ve tried to reassure her that that’s okay.”
Cover up
In a bid to conceal how many children she had in her care, Mathewson implemented strict drop-off and pick-up procedures, ensuring parents never crossed paths.
The parent STV News spoke to handed over her kids during the school drop-offs and was never allowed inside Mathewson’s home while picking them up. Others reported that she played loud music to conceal noise from within.
She also required parents to text before arriving at the property.
“We started in 2022. She said that post-Covid, she had started a doorstep collection, and it worked well without disturbing other children.
“She said if parents come in, the other children would get upset because it wasn’t their parent. So she felt the easiest and safest thing to do was to have the children ready to go on the doorstep. We just accepted it.
“She staggered drop-offs, so I would drop off the youngest at the school during my school run, so I never saw any other children when I was handing her over.”
STV NewsIn the years since the allegations came to light, the mum-of-three has refused to allow her children to go into any other childcare.
She added: “We changed our work life and our jobs to ensure we can be here and they don’t go to childcare or after-school club anymore. I don’t want to live like that, and I don’t want her to have that effect on us. Just for our own peace of mind, we collect the children and take them to school ourselves.
“It’s certainly changed our lives a lot, and it’s changed me as a person. I was a trusting person and assumed everyone approached the world and childcare the same way I did, putting the needs of the child first. It’s taught me to be more guarded.”
Mathewson’s offending was exposed after parents became concerned their children were not accompanying the childminder on school runs.
They found Mathewson’s property unlocked, with a child aged around two to three crying under a table.
The parents then found children strapped to pushchairs upstairs in the property and appeared visibly distressed.
Children were also found in the garden, having been ordered to remain there by Mathewson.
The court heard how children told their parents that being left alone was commonplace while she went on school runs or outings. Children aged about five to eight were allowed to travel to and from school without an adult and were made to wait in the garden until Mathewson returned.
Diaries and photographs created a misleading picture of activities and meals.
The mum added: “She was a very, very accomplished liar and she manipulated us from the very beginning. We have gone over everything, trying to think whether there were things we missed and whether this was in some way our fault.
“We really have to remind ourselves that it wasn’t our fault, we and our children were the victims.”
Sentencing
Mathewson appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court for sentencing on Friday.
Sheriff John MacRitchie said: “This was not an isolated oversight, an accident or a single error of judgement. It was a sustained course of deliberate and grossly reckless conduct repeated over almost a year.
“You concealed from parents and care inspectors what you were doing.
“Children told parents that being left was commonplace while you went on school runs or outings.”
STV NewsMathewson was found to have wilfully neglected, abandoned and exposed children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to their health.
The charge continued that Mathewson offered childminding services for more children than she could reasonably provide care for at the same time.
She also left children alone at her home where she provided childminding services, contrary to the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937.
‘The Care Inspectorate has let us down’
Parents of those looked after by Mathewson have since met with the Care Inspectorate and Fife Council to establish what went wrong and how changes can be made to better protect children.
They have called for a number of changes, including a register of children attending each childminder, which could be held centrally and accessed by parents.
The mum said: “It’s all very informal as far as we’re concerned. There’s no system for flagging payments.
“This was done purely for financial gain for her; she did this for money, and there’s no way of tracking how much she was paid and by whom, even though most went through a government system.
“Even though there’s a financial aspect, they haven’t done anything about that; most organisations that handle money will have things in place to flag up unusual transactions.
“The very first response in from Care Inspectorate was that she had deregistered herself, so it was nothing to do with them anymore. They then rejected most of the complaints. We didn’t accept that. I don’t want to be too critical of them; they are an important organisation, but they have let us down.
“So far they don’t seem to have addressed public concerns or explained what they’re going to do about them.
“I would want childminding as a profession to be better regulated.”
Following Friday’s sentencing, a Care Inspectorate spokesperson said Mathewson “broke the trust of families and children”.
The body added that it has reviewed its inspection procedures following parents’ concerns.
A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said: “This was a shocking case and our thoughts are with those affected.
“Amanda Mathewson broke the trust of families and children, and the crime for which she is responsible has been dealt with by the courts.
“The Care Inspectorate has listened carefully to parents who raised concerns with us and we have reviewed how we work following learning from this case.
“This has included updating our inspection, complaints and conflict of interest procedures. We have provided new ways to submit feedback on childminders both during and outwith inspections. We have also provided clearer resources to help families understand what to expect from their childminder.
“It is important to note that this case does not reflect the wider childminding sector. The overwhelming majority of childminders in Scotland provide safe, nurturing care for children with more than 90% receiving grades of good or better at inspection.”
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