Former teacher found guilty of murdering baby he was trying to adopt

A man has today been found guilty of murdering and sexually abusing a baby boy he was in the process of adopting. 

Following a seven-week trial at Preston Crown Court which concluded on Monday, June15, 37-year-old Jamie Varley was also found guilty of seriously assaulting Preston Davey on an earlier occasion, as well as four counts of child cruelty and possessing and distributing indecent images of a child. All those offences related to baby Preston. 

His partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, was found guilty of causing or allowing a child’s death, two child cruelty offences and a single sexual assault. 

Preston Elijah Davey (pictured below) was born at Wythenshawe Hospital on 16th June 2022. 

On 21st June 2022 baby Preston was placed into emergency foster care, and for the first nine months of his life with his foster carers he was described by health professionals as being healthy and happy. 

On 23rd March 2023, an adoption panel approved the adoption of Preston by Varley and McGowan-Fazackerley.  

On 31st March 2023 Preston spent his first night with Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley. 

It was during the four-month period before Preston’s death on 27th July 2023, and whilst he was in the care of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley, that all the criminal offences against him took place. 

Within weeks of 13-month Preston being placed into the defendants’ care, Varley (pictured below) sent messages to a friend describing how he found him annoying and other friends that he was struggling to cope. 

By 17th April 2023 Varley had taken his first video of Preston. 

Indecent images and videos of Preston taken on 23rd April 2023 and 25th April 2023 were recovered from Varley’s phone after his arrest.  

A video taken on 23rd April 2023, which was recovered from Varley’s phone following his arrest, showed Preston had bruising to his head. This indicated he had been the victim of a physical cruelty at an earlier period. 

On 5th May 2023, Varley took more indecent images and an indecent video of Preston. The indecent video was shared with McGowan-Fazakerley via Snapchat.  

At 9.43pm on 11th May 2023, McGowan-Fazakerley made a 999 call to the emergency services, however this call was abandoned after four seconds. Before the call ended, Varley could be heard stating “put it down”. When police re-called the number, a male answered and stated that he had called 999 in error and had and meant to the non-emergency number of 111. McGowan-Fazakerley called 111 from Jamie Varley’s parents’ house at 10.16pm, stating that Preston had breathing problems and an inability to hold his head properly.

An out of hours call within two hours was arranged, but McGowan-Fazakerley never answered the call or sought medical attention for Preston. And the following day, neither McGowan-Fazakerley or Varley mentioned any health problems to the health visitor. 

Images taken on Varley’s phone on 13th May 2023 and images and videos taken on both Varley’s and McGowan-Fazakerley’s phones 16th May 2023 indicated Preston had been the victim to further physical cruelty. 

The first hospital visit came on 25th May 2023. Varley took Preston to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, stating he had breathing difficulties and that he had suffered a seizure.  

Police were contacted by safeguarding staff at the hospital and detectives from our Child Protection Team attended. However, medical staff indicated there were no concerns around potential non-accidental injury. This was the only time police received contact from hospital staff regarding Preston Davey until the day he died. 

Images later recovered from Varley’s and McGowan-Fazakerley’s mobile phones showed Preston in hospital on 25th May 2023 and 26th May 2023 with bruising to his head, indicating he had been the victim of physical cruelty.  

Images taken on McGowan-Fazakerley phone on 3rd June 2023 and 10th June 2023, showed Preston had been a further victim of physical cruelty. 

On 12th June 2023, Varley recorded indecent videos of Preston on his mobile phone, which he sent to McGowan-Fazakerley. These videos also indicated Preston had been the victim of physical cruelty. 

Separate indecent images of Preston taken later the same day, were subsequently recovered from McGowan-Fazakerley’s phone. 

On 15th June 2023, Varley messaged McGowan-Fazakerley stating that he needed to get home, as Preston had suffered a potential medical episode.

Varley never sought medical treatment in relation to this; however, videos later recovered from his mobile phone indicated he instead subjected him to psychological cruelty by deliberately keeping him awake. 

Separate images taken by Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley on 16th June 2023 indicated Preston had been the victim of physical cruelty. 

Videos later recovered from McGowan-Fazakerley’s phone but recorded on 22nd June 2023 and 23rd June 2023 indicated that Preston had been the victim of physical cruelty. 

Images taken by McGowan-Fazakerley (pictured below) on 28th June 2023 and 29th June 2023 and an image taken by Varley on 29th June 2023, again indicated that Preston had been the victim of physical cruelty. 

On 30th June 2023 Preston was back in Blackpool Victoria Hospital due to a rash. Bruises were noted on Preston’s head and Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley showed staff a video of a toy box falling on Preston’s head. Later enquiries showed this video was recorded 12 days earlier, meaning it couldn’t have been the real cause of the bruising. 

On 6th July 2023 Preston attended Blackpool Victoria Hospital for a third time, this time with a fractured arm. Varley gave hospital staff, friends and social workers differing accounts as to how the injury occurred. Varley told staff at A and E that there was an incident in Preston’s cot, he told doctors that it was caused while putting Preston in his car seat and he sent a friend a message stating he had caught Preston falling. 

An image taken by McGowan-Fazakerley on 15th July 2023 indicated Preston had been the victim of physical cruelty. 

On 19th July 2023, Varley recorded videos of his mobile phone in which he was spinning Preston on a playground teacup at excess speed. Preston was in clear distress throughout the videos, with his eyes struggling to focus. Varley shared one of these videos with others, including McGowan-Fazakerley. He later set two of them to music. 

On 23rd July 2023, Preston was the victim of a sexual assault at the hands of both Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley. Evidence of this assault was recovered from Varley’s mobile phone and from Preston’s cot. 

On the same day, an indecent image was taken on Varley’s phone, which also indicated Preston had been the victim of physical cruelty. It is believed the injury sustained in this assault was so serious, that it was a contributing factor to his death.  

On 24th July 2023, Varley recorded a video in which he left Preston unaccompanied in the bath for over 14 minutes. Preston was not in his bath seat in the video and was in significant distress, whimpering on occasions as he unsuccessfully tried to get out of the bath.  

At 4.45pm on 27th July 2023 Varley recorded a video of Preston led on a bed struggling to breathe and in obvious discomfort. It was the prosecution’s case that earlier in the day, Preston had been the victim of a sexual assault at the hands of Jamie Varley.

There was then a second assault on Preston which caused an obstruction to Preston’s airways. Only Varley was present in the house at the time both these assaults took place. 

It wasn’t until 6.24 pm on 27th July 2023 that Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley arrived at hospital with Preston who was unconscious and in cardiac arrest. He was sadly pronounced deceased at 7.20pm. 

Upon arriving at hospital Varley set about lying to hospital staff and the attending police officers about the circumstances which led to Preston becoming unresponsive. Varley claimed that he had left Preston unsupervised for a matter of minutes in his bath seat while he got changed and returned to find him submerged in the bath.  

This was not supported by medical evidence or by the fact that Preston was completely dry when he arrived at hospital. 

A Home Office postmortem examination established that Preston had suffered 40 traumatic injuries over the course of the time he had been in Varley and McGowan-Fazackerley’s care. Injuries that included at least 30 external bruises; internal bruising to his mouth and throat; internal bruising to his anus, bowel, and bladder. Preston also had a healing fracture to his left upper arm, around his elbow, that was non-accidental in nature. 

Preston died as a result of an Acute Upper Airways Obstruction.  

Later the same day, Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were arrested on suspicion of neglect of a child whilst our officers carried out enquiries and expert medical evidence was sought. 

In early August 2023, and after the results of the Home Office postmortem were revealed, Varley was re-arrested on suspicion of murder and McGowan-Fazakerley was arrested on suspicion of causing and allowing the death of a child and child neglect. 

Following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, the defendants, then of Chandlers Way, Grimsargh, but now of no fixed address, were charged with the following: 

Jamie Varley: Murder, two counts of sexual assault of a male child under 13, inflicting grievous bodily harm, four counts of cruelty to a person under 16, ten counts of taking indecent images of a child, two counts of possessing indecent images of a child, and one count of distributing an indecent image of a child.

John McGowan-Fazakerley: Causing and allowing the death of a child, two counts of cruelty to a person under 16 and sexual assault of a male child under 13. 

 A jury took just over two days to unanimously find both defendants guilty on all counts. 

Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were remanded back into custody to be sentenced at the same court on Thursday 18th June.

DCI Andy Fallows, from the Force Major Investigation Team, said: “It is not often in this job that you encounter pure evil. Anybody who has followed this trial will no doubt understand why I place Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley in that category. 

“Almost from day one, they set about abusing Preston and making his short life a harrowing tale of misery and pain. It was this abuse that ultimately led to Preston’s death.  

“For the first nine months of his life Preston was a happy and healthy child but by the end he was a broken shell. This was due to the sordid and wicked acts of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley. 

“I would like to thank the team of detectives, uniformed officers and members of police staff who have worked tirelessly to compile the evidence that has resulted today’s guilty verdicts.  

“I would also like to thank the jury for their considered verdicts, the Crown Prosecution Service and our counsel Peter Wrights KC and Simon Driver. 

“Throughout this trial we have tried to ensure the focus remained on baby Preston Davey, a little boy who was physically, sexually and psychologically abused by two individuals who were supposed to love and care for him.’’