Childminder Who Left 27 Children Unsupervised Was a 'Master Manipulator,' Parents Say

A childminder who admitted multiple charges of neglect was a "master manipulator" who hid years of inadequate care behind a carefully cultivated reputation, according to parents whose children she looked after.

Amanda Mathewson, 55, pleaded guilty at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Tuesday to wilfully neglecting, abandoning and exposing children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to their health. She is due to be sentenced next month.

Families have told BBC Scotland that Mathewson was widely regarded as one of the best childminders in the Dunfermline area before her offences came to light. One parent described her as "loved and trusted throughout the community," adding that her friendly and caring manner with adults was part of how she concealed what was happening behind closed doors.

At one point, Mathewson left 27 youngsters alone and unsupervised at her home. When police arrested her following allegations of cruelty towards children, she had 15 children aged under 12 in her care, along with 10 children below primary school age and two babies under the age of one.

Mathewson had operated as a self-employed childminder for three decades, providing care at her home for children under the age of 16. One parent told the BBC that discovering the truth had been "incredibly traumatic" for their family and others, saying they had been forced to "rewrite eight years of history" and had lost happy memories because their belief that their children were being properly cared for was false. The parent went on to describe Mathewson as "a master manipulator" who had "got away with these things for years."

Another parent, who considered Mathewson a good friend, told BBC Radio Scotland's Mornings programme that the revelation had been devastating. Parents said they had noticed signs of distress and asked questions, but were always reassured. Mathewson would pre-empt their concerns with what one parent called "a plausible explanation," and the deception was so consistent that it concealed neglect from families and professionals alike.

The court heard that parents had raised concerns that their children had not eaten while in Mathewson's care, partly because their clothes remained in "pristine condition." It was also a common theme that children would return home thirsty. Some parents reported that their children came home in dirty nappies or with dry faeces in their underwear.

Court documents revealed that Mathewson always had loud music playing and would not allow parents to enter her home at drop-off time. Investigators concluded this was an attempt to "conceal how oversubscribed she was." The investigation also found discrepancies between the number of children she was registered to care for and the number she was seen with on multiple occasions.

A Care Inspectorate report published in August 2023 stated that Mathewson was registered to provide care for a maximum of eight children at any one time. Her registration conditions limited her to no more than six children under the age of 12, no more than three below school age, and no more than one child under 12 months old.

An unannounced inspection took place roughly a year before her arrest. It rated areas including care, learning and the setting as "very good" — the second-highest level on the quality scale. The report said that "children were cared for in a comfortable, welcoming and homely environment" and were looked after "with warmth, kindness and a nurturing approach." Those findings now stand in stark contrast to the neglect described in court.

After suspicions were raised, parents worked together to gather evidence and provide it to police. One parent said the first few months after the case came to light were almost impossible to describe, and that every parent involved had replayed in their mind every conversation and every comment their child had ever made — things that had seemed innocent at the time but in hindsight could have been red flags.

Speaking about the wider impact, one parent said that if Mathewson could build and manipulate the trust of adults across an entire community so effectively, it showed how little power babies and young children had behind closed doors. The case has raised troubling questions about how a childminder with an apparently unblemished reputation could have been operating so far outside her registration conditions for so long.

A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate described the case as "distressing" and confirmed that the organisation had implemented changes as a result. Mathewson will return to court next month to learn her sentence, while the families affected continue to come to terms with the scale of the deception they say was hidden from them for years.