Jamie Varley, a 37-year-old teacher, put his hands to his face as the jury foreman read out the guilty verdicts for murdering his 13-month-old adopted son, Preston Davey. Then he collapsed to his knees, retching and vomiting in the dock at Preston Crown Court.
The baby died on 27 July 2023 after Varley claimed he had left him unattended in a bath and he drowned. But a post-mortem examination found 40 traumatic injuries on Preston's body, including deep bruising to the back of his throat, injuries to his bottom, bowel and bladder consistent with sexual assault, and a healing fracture to his left arm. The cause of death was acute upper airway obstruction caused by an object forced into his mouth.
“Teacher Jamie Varley convicted of murdering adopted baby Preston Davey; partner guilty of allowing death.”
Varley and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, a financial sales manager, adopted Preston in April 2023, when the baby was nine months old. Within days, the prosecutor Peter Wright KC told the court, they began abusing him. Preston was “routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted”, Wright said. Varley used the baby as a “plaything” for his own gratification, the jury decided.
Over the following 16 weeks, Varley took indecent images and videos of Preston. The couple took him to Blackpool Victoria Hospital three times with suspicious bruises that medical staff noted but were explained away. Social workers also saw Preston multiple times.
On the final day, Varley rushed Preston to hospital unresponsive. He claimed the baby had slipped from his bath seat and submerged. But Preston’s hair was dry, he still wore a nappy, and he had not swallowed water. The jury rejected his account.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fallows of Lancashire Police described Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley as “pure evil”. “Almost from day one, they set about abusing Preston and making his short life a harrowing tale of misery and pain,” he said. “For the first nine months of his life Preston was a happy and healthy child but by the end he was a broken shell.”
McGowan-Fazakerley showed no reaction as he was convicted of allowing Preston’s death, three counts of child cruelty and one count of sexual assault of a child. His father, watching from the public gallery, shook his head. Preston’s mother, Sarah Davey, 42, and grandmother sobbed throughout the 29 guilty verdicts. Davey was jailed as a 14-year-old for murdering a 71-year-old pensioner in 1998.
Both men will be sentenced on Thursday.