Preston Davey killer’s chilling warning indicators uncovered by ex-neighbour lengthy earlier than homicide
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: A former neighbour has exposed the chilling early warning signs of twisted ex-teacher Jamie Varley, who is jailed for life for murdering his adopted baby Preston Davey
The terrifying red flags displayed by Preston Davey’s killer Jamie Varley have been laid bare(Image: Lancashire Police)
The terrifying red flags displayed by former schoolteacher Jamie Varley years before he sexually abused and murdered his adopted baby boy have been laid bare by a former neighbour. The twisted 37-year-old is currently locked up on a whole-life order for the horrific killing of 13-month-old Preston Davey.
On the day of his tragic death, July 27, 2023, helpless Preston suffered two unspeakable sexual assaults at the hands of the secondary school teacher.
Varley had climbed the ranks to become a head of year and safeguarding lead at South Shore Academy. Meanwhile, his partner, former public schoolboy John McGowan-Fazakerley, worked as an accounts manager for a finance firm.
But behind the respectable facade lay a dark past. For monsters like Varley, the warning signs often lurk in their early years, only truly understood with the benefit of hindsight once their sickening crimes come to light.
Unlike his partner’s affluent, middle-class upbringing, Varley grew up on a council estate in Newark. He was the second youngest of six children and moved to Blackpool as a teenager. Notably, no father was listed on his birth certificate.
According to a former neighbour who lived next door to the family’s Victorian mid-terrace home in the Lancashire seaside resort, the household was an absolute “nightmare.”
The woman, a mother of five who has fostered around a dozen children, told the Daily Mail “He [Varley] was horrible. I had to report him to the police and to the housing association for anti-social behaviour and criminal damage but he was never arrested.”
However, it was the more sinister encounters that left a lasting impression on the neighbour, making her deeply anxious for her own kids’ safety at the time.
She said: “He started shouting nasty abuse and ended up throwing lit cigarettes at their toys, trying to set them on fire.”
The creep’s erratic behaviour forced the mother to drastically alter her daily routine to keep her family safe.
She said: “I wouldn’t let my children play in the front of the house because of him, not unless I was on the doorstep. When his family moved out [in 2014], we put the flags out. How on earth he got to be a secondary school teacher, I really don’t know.”
Varley started his career at South Shore Academy as a design and technology technician. He later attended university as a mature student, eventually qualifying as a textiles teacher.
Around seven years ago, the killer took a six-week absence from work. Colleagues were informed that his time off was due to mental health struggles, with whispers of a nervous breakdown.
Another bizarre incident occurred during the Covid pandemic lockdown. Varley failed to show up for work after allegedly injuring his back.
The injury happened when he fell from a ladder or drainpipe while spying on a boyfriend (not McGowan-Fazakerley) he believed was cheating.
The strange tale quickly spread among peers because Varley’s extreme narcissism, which became glaringly obvious during his four months as Preston’s adoptive dad, meant he simply couldn’t stop bragging about it.
Following his sentencing at Preston Crown Court two weeks ago, Varley has now been added to the grim list of roughly 70 notorious British criminals destined to die behind bars, joining the likes of Wayne Couzens, Levi Bellfield and Jeremy Bamber.
