A childminder who admitted leaving children she was caring for alone and unsupervised in her home has been jailed for two years.

More than 20 unattended children, two under the age of one, were in Amanda Mathewson’s house in Dunfermline, Fife, when she was arrested in August 2024.

Her offending only came to light after concerned parents spied on her leaving for a school run without their children.

An internal Care Inspectorate probe found Mathewson, who was been licensed to look after eight children under the age of 16 at any one time, had been tipped off about inspections by an unknown staff member.

Mathewson previously pled guilty to wilfully neglecting, abandoning and exposing children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to their health.

Sheriff John MacRitchie said Mathewson had committed a “gross abuse of a position of trust” during sentencing at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.

He read victim impact statements from parents of affected children who described them suffering from “nightmares and anxiety” and developing a “distrust of childcare providers”.

Mathewson had been a self-employed childminder for 30 years prior to her arrest.

An unannounced visit by the Care Inspectorate in August 2023 rated areas including care, learning and the setting as “very good”, praising her “warmth, kindness and nurturing approach”.

But a year later, one couple became suspicious that all was not as it seemed.

A friend had mentioned their two children, aged one and three, were not with Mathewson when she was on a school run.

BBC Scotland News has spoken to the father of the children. He has not been named to protect their identity.

The couple watched Mathewson in secret on 26 August 2024, parking opposite her home when their two boys were meant to be in her care as she went to collect other children from a local primary school.

They saw Mathewson leave the home with two young girls in a pushchair, then went to the front door – where the father said a child could be heard “screaming” inside.

The couple walked through a side gate to get to the back garden where they found a number of unsupervised children playing.

They were able to enter the property through the back door, finding a child “lying under a table” crying in severe distress.

Upstairs, the father said “a dozen or so young children” were sitting on the floor of a spare bedroom, with another on a double bed, as a TV on top of a chest of drawers loudly played a children’s programme.

He said two others were “tightly strapped into a buggy in a way it was not meant to be used”.

“It was August. It was a particularly warm summer. It was hot in that room,” he said.

“There was no food, no water, no toys, no activities for the children to be engaged in.”

The father said he was cradling two of the children in his arms as he walked downstairs when Mathewson returned home.

He described her reaction to seeing him as being “like her soul had left her body”.

“I’ll never forget it, she was like a child caught in the act of doing something they shouldn’t be doing,” he said.

“She took her jacket off and she just slumped to the floor. I asked her; ‘Amanda, what the hell? How many laws have you broken here?'”

“It’s obvious to us now. Her entire life was a lie. She has fabricated pretty much her entire life, her entire personality. It just crumbled in an instant.”

Mathewson was arrested and charged a short time later. When police arrived at the home, she had 15 children aged under 12 in her care, as well as 10 children under primary school age and two children under the age of one.

During the subsequent investigation, various children told their parents that being left alone in Mathewson’s home was commonplace.

Parents also raised concerns that their children had not eaten or had anything to drink during her care.

Some also reported their children returning home in dirty nappies.

A court hearing was later told how Mathewson would play loud music and prevented parents from coming into her home in an attempt to hide her offending.

Another parent told BBC Scotland News his daughter was “rummaging in a food waste bin” at nursery after spending mornings at Mathewson’s home.

For months after her arrest, he said his daughter would become “distraught” whenever they drove past her house.

He said it became “really difficult” for the family to travel from one side of the town to the other without her becoming distressed.

“I can’t imagine what must be going through her mind, the fear of going back there,” he said.

“That was heartbreaking and we didn’t know what to do or how to help.”

He described Mathewson’s system of avoiding parents bumping into each other at the same time as being like a “military operation”.

“We were let down. We were lied to. Our children were neglected,” he said.

“The only question I have is; Why?”

The Care Inspectorate’s August 2023 visit was meant to be unannounced, but the regulator has since admitted it is likely Mathewson received “confidential information” about inspections from an employee.

The insider is yet to be identified, despite an internal investigation.

A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said Mathewson “broke the trust” of families.

They said “inspection, complaints and conflict of interest procedures” had been updated in following feedback from affected parents.

Maria Lloyd, independent chairwoman of the Fife child protection committee, said a “learning review” would take place in the wake of the case.

She said it would consider whether improvements to “practice, processes or partnership working” were required.

A Scottish government spokesperson said the Care Inspectorate had carried out an audit of the way complaints against Mathewson were handled.

They added: “We know Scotland’s childminding community will be deeply distressed by this case.

“We are working with the independent regulators to strengthen practice, improve processes and enhance transparency.”

Law firm Irwin Mitchell Scotland – who are representing a number of families involved – said they have been instructed to explore a civil case against the Care Inspectorate.

Partner Kim Leslie said: “It is beggars belief that a failing of this magnitude could go unnoticed.

“This is a fundamental breach of trust which, by the regulator’s own admission, completely compromised the efficacy of regulatory scrutiny.

“The parents want the Care Inspectorate to be held to account.”