A secondary school teacher suffocated a 13-month-old baby to death after subjecting him to a prolonged and “sinister” campaign of sexual abuse and physical violence while in the process of adopting him, a jury has heard.
Preston Davey died at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on 27 July 2023, having been brought in unconscious and in cardiac arrest by the two men who were seeking to adopt him. He was pronounced dead 48 minutes after his arrival, despite the efforts of medical staff.
Jamie Varley, 37, a secondary school teacher, is accused of murdering Preston and faces a further range of charges including sexual assault, assault by penetration, grievous bodily harm, child cruelty and 14 counts of making indecent images of a child. His partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of child cruelty. Both men face joint charges of sexual assault and child cruelty.
Opening the prosecution case at Preston Crown Court, Peter Wright KC told jurors the baby had suffered 40 separate injuries. The most critical was a blockage of his upper airway, consistent with being smothered. There were also linear bruises consistent with a slap, bruising to his forehead consistent with gripping, abrasions to his face, mouth and behind his ears, and severe internal injuries caused by assault with “such force” as to cause significant damage. “Someone, with something, so compromised this little boy’s ability to breathe that he was smothered to death,” Mr Wright told the jury.
Preston had been placed with the couple in April 2023 — just four months before his death — following their approval as adoptive parents in January of that year. Within weeks of being placed in their care, the court heard, he had been “routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and assaulted.” He was admitted to hospital on three separate occasions prior to his death, with injuries including breathing difficulties, seizures, nosebleeds and a fractured elbow. On each occasion, explanations offered by the defendants were accepted by staff as sufficient to rule out deliberate harm.
Varley was alone with Preston at the time of the fatal assault. Rather than calling for emergency help immediately, the court heard, he made a video recording of the infant lying on a bed showing obvious signs of respiratory distress — his lips had turned blue and he had stopped breathing. Varley waited until McGowan-Fazakerley returned from work in Manchester before seeking medical assistance. Mr Wright said McGowan-Fazakerley “ought to have been aware of the risk” his partner posed to the child and had “failed to take such steps as could reasonably be expected to protect Preston Davey.”
The abuse was described as systematic and documented. Varley had made indecent videos and photographs of Preston throughout the period, with one image taken as what the prosecutor described as a “memento” of an earlier assault. A three-second video of the naked infant was sent by Varley to his partner accompanied by a comment about the baby’s anatomy. Separately, a 14-minute recording showed Preston left unattended in a bath, and other footage captured him being spun violently on a children’s roundabout at a play area — a video Varley later set to Kylie Minogue’s Spinning Around and stored on his phone.
The court heard Varley had been struggling significantly with the demands of caring for Preston, particularly when alone. He had approached a colleague at his school to ask for anti-depressants and beta blockers, but was refused and advised to consult a doctor. Varley declined, telling the colleague a prescription for mental health issues could “affect the adoption.” He also told his partner on one occasion: “I can’t cope, John. You need to take him.”
Neighbours reported persistent crying from the property at all hours and raised voices between the two men, with McGowan-Fazakerley visiting at one point to apologise for the disturbance.
An abandoned 999 call made by McGowan-Fazakerley on 15 May — weeks before Preston’s death — was cut off after four seconds, with a voice in the background audible saying “put it down.” Mr Wright told the jury that voice could only have been Varley’s.
The prosecutor concluded: “On the evidence you hear, you may conclude that Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley were in fact wholly unsuited to the role of adoptive parents. Sadly, this fact only became so patently obvious when, for Preston Davey, it was too late.”
Both defendants deny all charges. The trial, which is expected to last between six and eight weeks, continues.
