2 publishers · first seen Fri, 06 Nov 2026 14:19 UTC · updated Fri, 06 Nov 2026 18:45 UTC
Amanda Mathewson, a 55-year-old childminder from Dunfermline, Fife, has been sentenced to two years in prison for neglecting and abandoning children in her care. Mathewson, who was legally allowed to look after only eight children under 16, was found to have 27 children at her home at one point. Some of the children were left unsupervised in the garden, while others were strapped into prams in an upstairs room. Mathewson had worked as a self-employed childminder for about 30 years before her arrest in August 2024. At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, she admitted to wilfully neglecting, abandoning, and exposing children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to their health. The judge, Sheriff John MacRitchie, described her actions as a 'gross abuse of a position of trust' and noted that a non-custodial sentence would not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offence.
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