Jamie Varley, a 37-year-old secondary school teacher, will die in prison after being handed a whole-life order for the sexual abuse and murder of his 13-month-old adopted son, Preston Davey. The sentence, delivered by Mr Justice Turner at Preston Crown Court on Thursday, means Varley will never be eligible for parole. His partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, a former public schoolboy and financial sales manager, was jailed for 25 years for allowing the death of a child, child cruelty and sexual assault.
Preston Davey died on 27 July 2023, four months after being placed with the couple at their home in Staining, near Blackpool, with a view to formal adoption. He was nine months old when he arrived, having been removed from his biological mother, Sarah Davey, by an emergency care order from Oldham Council. Varley told police the baby had accidentally drowned in a bath, but a post-mortem found 40 traumatic injuries. The cause of death was acute upper airways obstruction, by smothering or insertion of objects into the mouth.
“Teacher Jamie Varley gets whole-life order for murdering adopted baby Preston Davey; partner jailed 25 years.”
Prosecutor Peter Wright KC told the court the adopting parents treated Preston as a “plaything”. Over the final months of his life, the baby was “routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted”. A long police investigation uncovered disturbing images and videos on Varley’s phone, showing physical, psychological and sexual abuse. On 23 July, McGowan-Fazakerley participated in a joint attack on Preston as he slumped over the bars of his cot. Four days later, the couple took an unresponsive Preston to Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Medics worked for 50 minutes but he was pronounced dead at 7.18pm. A senior doctor described Varley’s behaviour at the hospital as “almost pantomime”, a performance unlike anything she had seen.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Turner said Preston had faced “unremitting abuse and neglect” before being killed by Varley during a sex attack. Turning to Varley, he said: “It was you who did this. You murdered him. A whole life order is a sentence of last resort for cases of the most extreme gravity. This is a case of the most extreme gravity. You must stay in prison for the rest of your life. You will never be eligible for parole.”
Preston’s birth mother, Sarah Davey, a convicted killer who wept throughout the hearing, said in a victim impact statement: “I will never forgive you for what you did to my son and what you stopped him from becoming and achieving in his life. Every single day, I live with the unimaginable pain of wondering what he went through. Those thoughts do not leave me. They are with me when I wake up, and they haunt me when I try to sleep.” His biological father, Gary Nolan, said: “Preston was the son that I never got to meet and now never will. Upon hearing the news, I remember officers taking hold of me and me blanking out, the next thing I recall is waking up in hospital two days later.”
Preston’s foster mother, Sandra Cooper, told the court he was “joyful, so content and happy, with sparkly smiling eyes”. Her husband Paul added: “Saying goodbye to him and handing him over to Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley was extremely difficult. However, we believed at the time that this was the best thing for Preston and he was going to a loving home.”
The case has raised questions about whether authorities missed opportunities to save Preston, who was seen by social workers, doctors and other professionals in his final weeks.