Varley was convicted of murder, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of child cruelty, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault of a child, 13 counts of taking indecent photographs or videos of a child, and more
A secondary school teacher described in court as outgoing, theatrical, “sassy” and something of a “drama queen” has been convicted of murdering and sexually abusing his 13-month-old adopted son after subjecting him to months of horrific mistreatment.
Jamie Varley, 37, was found guilty of killing baby Preston Davey, who suffered around 40 non-accidental injuries while in his care. The injuries included fingertip bruising to his head and limbs, slap marks, a human bite mark and evidence of sexual abuse.
Prosecutors told jurors the toddler had been treated as a “plaything” before his death in July 2023. Following an eight-week trial at Preston Crown Court, jurors took around 14 hours to reach their verdicts.
Varley was convicted of murder, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of child cruelty, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault of a child, 13 counts of taking indecent photographs or videos of a child, one count of distributing an indecent image of a child to his co-defendant, and one count of making an indecent image.
His partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, a former public school pupil and financial sales manager, was found guilty of allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty and one count of sexually assaulting a child.
As the verdicts were delivered, Varley remained in the dock and covered his face in apparent disbelief before dropping to his knees, retching and vomiting. McGowan-Fazakerley showed little reaction, while his father shook his head. Preston’s mother and grandmother wept throughout the reading of the 29 guilty verdicts.
The pair will be sentenced on Thursday. Mr Justice Turner told jurors they would be exempt from future jury service because of the distressing nature of the evidence they had been required to consider. Varley, who faces a mandatory life sentence, appeared dazed after the hearing, with a prison officer repeatedly calling his name before escorting him from the dock.
Preston had been adopted by the couple after being removed from the care of his mother, Sarah Davey, now 42, under an emergency care order obtained by Oldham Council. Ms Davey had previously been jailed at the age of 14 for what was described as the “unspeakably wicked” murder of a frail pensioner in 1998 and had spent periods in prison since.
Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were approved as adoptive parents, and Preston moved into their Blackpool home in April 2023 when he was nine months old. The court heard that during the less than four months he lived with the couple, Preston was repeatedly assaulted, sexually abused and photographed and filmed in degrading situations.
Despite being taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on three occasions with suspicious bruising, concerns raised by medical staff were dismissed and police investigations were stood down.
The toddler was also seen by social workers and by teachers who worked alongside Varley, who had taken a year’s sabbatical from his roles as head of year and design and technology teacher at South Shore Academy.
On July 27, 2023, Varley rushed Preston to hospital after claiming he had left him alone in a bath for a few minutes and returned to find him submerged underwater. Medical staff fought unsuccessfully for 50 minutes to save the child’s life. During that time, one senior doctor described Varley as putting on an unprecedented “performance” of a grieving parent.
However, medics noted inconsistencies with his account. Preston’s hair was dry, he was still wearing a nappy and there was no evidence he had swallowed water. A Home Office post-mortem later ruled out drowning and revealed around 40 internal and external injuries.
Among the injuries were clusters of fingertip bruises on his face, head and limbs, slap marks on one leg and a human bite mark on his right buttock. He also suffered injuries to his mouth, throat and bottom. Experts concluded some injuries were consistent with “forcible penetration” and sexual abuse.
The cause of death was determined to be acute upper airway obstruction caused by an object or objects being forced into his mouth. Investigators later uncovered messages showing Varley had spoken about having “dark thoughts” of suffocating or drowning Preston. In another message to his sister, he referred to the child as “dead meat” after a sleepless night.
Neighbours told jurors they frequently heard the baby crying and questioned why he appeared so distressed. Some of the most powerful evidence came from indecent photographs and videos recovered by police. Jurors were told parts of the material “cannot be unseen”, while the graphic nature of the evidence caused one juror to withdraw, forcing the trial to restart with a new panel.
Among the footage were clips showing Varley deliberately “jump scaring” the exhausted child awake. Other images were far more disturbing. Police recovered a series of photographs taken just four days before Preston died during what prosecutors described as a sexual assault.
The images show him in his cot beside his teddy bears, hanging over a rail with his neck resting on the bar and his legs in a “frog like” position. Jurors heard liquid was visible coming from his mouth, his tongue protruded and his lips appeared blue due to oxygen deprivation. The photographs have not been released publicly because of their disturbing nature.
Another video recorded by Varley around 90 minutes before the final emergency hospital trip showed Preston in severe distress, barely breathing and taking what experts described as “agonal breaths”, while Varley simultaneously used Snapchat and checked emails.
The court heard Preston had once been a cheerful and smiling child. Later photographs, however, showed what witnesses described as a “blank” expression.
Child abuse specialist Dr Joanne Gifford told jurors this was indicative of “frozen watchfulness”, a recognised trauma response in abused children.
Following the convictions, Oldham Council confirmed it would resume a child safeguarding practice review that had been suspended during the criminal proceedings.
The evil pair are due to be sentenced at a late date.
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