Amanda Mathewson

Introduction

Amanda Mathewson is a registered childminder with roughly 30 years of experience in childcare who was jailed for two years at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on November 6, 2026, after pleading guilty to wilfully neglecting, abandoning and exposing children in her charge . Sheriff John MacRitchie sentenced her on indictment for a course of conduct between September 7, 2023 and August 26, 2024, in which she took charge of far more children than she was authorised or capable of caring for safely and left them alone — on one day holding 27 children when her registration permitted at most eight under 12 . The sheriff called it “a sustained course of deliberate and grossly reckless conduct, repeated over almost a year” .

Background Information

As a registered childminder, Mathewson was permitted to care for a maximum of eight children under 12, including no more than three under primary school age and one under one . On August 26, 2024, she had 27 children in her care: 15 under 12, ten under primary school age, and two under one — a scale of excess the sheriff described as extreme . The agreed Crown narrative established the pattern as repeated practice rather than a single bad day: three children of eight at a fellow childminder’s, three of nine at a church Christmas party, three of eleven for a roughly two-hour fire-station visit, three of eleven at a sports day, four of six on a woodland walk, and five of thirteen at a park .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Mathewson pleaded guilty on indictment to wilful neglect, abandonment and exposure of children over almost a year and received a two-year prison sentence.

The conduct was discovered because parents became suspicious that their sons, then aged three and one, were not accompanying Mathewson on school runs; they watched her leave with other children, went to her home, and heard a child screaming hysterically . Five school-age children were waiting in the garden without an adult, having been told to remain there; the front door was unlocked; inside, a child of about two or three was crying beneath the kitchen table and had to be lifted and comforted; upstairs was a group of very young children including the parents’ sons, and two children were strapped in pushchairs . The children were described as obviously distressed, and Mathewson had left them without adult supervision for at least 30 minutes — with doorbell footage showing it was the second time that same day children had been left alone .

The concealment was systematic: parents were excluded from the house and required to text before arriving, a radio played loudly, younger children were kept upstairs and older children hidden in the utility room with instructions not to emerge, and false explanations claimed other adults or childminders were present . Diaries and photographs created a misleading picture — children who attended a Christmas party were photographed with Santa, while the parents of children left behind received a generic image calculated to suggest their own children had attended; when Early Years Officers visited, only two of the nine children then in her care were visible .

Public Reaction and Consequences

Sentencing, Sheriff MacRitchie said he had weighed the statutory presumption against imprisonment but that it “does not prevent imprisonment where no other method of dealing with the offender is appropriate,” and that the purposes carrying particular weight were punishment, protection of children and the public through deterrence, and “the clear expression of society’s grave disapproval of your conduct” . He found her culpability very high: an experienced, registered professional who knew the regulatory limits, understood the vulnerability of babies and young children, and whose conduct involved planning, premeditation, and the physical concealment of children in closed rooms .

Current Status

Mathewson is serving a two-year prison sentence imposed at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on November 6, 2026; the sheriff noted a low assessed risk of reoffending made rehabilitation relevant, but said it could not by itself meet the demands of what he called an exceptionally serious offence .

Impact on Their Career/Life

A roughly 30-year childcare career ended in a prison sentence, with the court’s published account recording how a registered professional used diaries, photographs, advance-warning arrangements, loud music and closed rooms to hide from parents and inspectors the fact that she was minding up to 27 children at once — including babies — while taking only a fraction of them anywhere . The two-year sentence stands as the formal public record of what the sheriff called a knowing breach of every limit that existed to keep childminded children safe .

Sources

• Judiciary of Scotland, “HMA v Amanda Mathewson,” November 6, 2026 — source