Jamie Varley, 37, has been found guilty of 29 offences including murder, sexual abuse, assault by penetration and cruelty to a child. He will be sentenced on Thursday
A secondary school teacher has been convicted of the murder and sexual abuse of a 13-month-old baby he used as a “plaything”.
Jamie Varley, 37, adopted Preston Davey at nine months old with his partner, former public school pupil and financial sales manager, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32.
Preston had been removed from his mother, Sarah Davey, now 42, by an emergency care order by Oldham Council. Ms Davey, when she was 14, had been imprisoned for the “unspeakably wicked” murder of a frail pensioner in 1998 and had been in and out of prison since then. Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were approved for adoption and at nine months old Preston began residing at their home in Blackpool, Lancs in April 2023.
However, in the just under four months he was in their care, he was regularly mistreated, had indecent images and videos taken of him, sexually abused and physically assaulted, suffering 40 traumatic injuries, the defendant’s trial at Preston Crown Court has heard.
After an eight-week trial, a jury spent around 14 hours deliberating verdicts before it returned to court to deliver them.
Varley was found guilty of murder, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault of a child, 13 counts of taking indecent photos or videos of a child, one of distributing an indecent photo of a child, to his co-accused, and one of making an indecent photo.
McGowan-Fazakerley was convicted of allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child. Varley remained in the dock and covered his face in disbelief as the guilty verdicts were delivered, before dropping to his knees, retching and being sick.
His co-defendant showed no response, while McGowan-Fazakerley’s father shook his head. Preston’s mother and grandmother broke down in tears, weeping throughout as the 29 guilty verdicts were announced.
Both accused will not receive their sentences today and Mr Justice Turner confirmed he will deliver sentencing on Thursday.
Mr Justice Turner praised the jury for their public service, stating: “Once you have been discharged from this case, bearing in mind what we have called upon you to do, I’m going to exempt you from the obligation to sit on a jury for life.” The judge departed court without directly addressing the defendants.
Varley, who faces a mandatory life sentence for murder, seemed to be in a trance-like state, with a prison officer having to repeat his name to gain his attention before he was escorted from the dock to the cells.
The trial heard Preston had been brought to Blackpool Victoria Hospital three times in the months before his death with suspicious bruises spotted by medical staff, but these were dismissed and police were stood down.
Preston had also been observed by numerous social workers and teachers, colleagues of Varley, who took a year’s sabbatical from his roles as head of year and design and technology teacher at South Shore Academy in Blackpool.
However, on July 27, 2023, Varley rushed Preston to hospital for the last time, unresponsive. He alleged that he had left the child in the bath for a few minutes and came back to find him submerged.
Despite their efforts, medical staff were unable to save his life after working tirelessly for 50 minutes. In the meantime, Varley put on what one senior doctor described as an unprecedented ‘performance’ of a grieving parent.
It was also noted that Preston’s hair was dry, he was wearing a nappy, and there was no sign that he had ingested any water. A Home Office post-mortem dismissed drowning as the cause of death and the examination revealed around 40 non-accidental, internal and external injuries.
These included multiple clusters of ‘finger tip’ bruises on his head, face and limbs, slap marks on his leg, and a human bite mark on the baby’s right buttock.
Preston also had injuries to his mouth, throat and bottom, with parts of his anatomy deemed “abnormal” and the injuries consistent with “forcible penetration” and sexual abuse. The cause of Preston’s death was determined to be acute upper airways obstruction by an object or objects inserted into his mouth.
Following the guilty verdicts, Oldham Council will restart a child safeguarding practice review, which was put on hold during the criminal proceedings.
Officers uncovered evidence that Varley had admitted to a colleague about harbouring “dark thoughts” of suffocating or drowning Preston. He had also messaged his sister describing the child as “dead meat” following a restless night.
Residents told the jury they questioned why they constantly heard the baby’s cries. Most damaging were the disturbing indecent images and footage of Preston’s abuse, some of which “cannot be unseen”, the court was told.
Certain evidence proved too distressing for one juror, causing the trial to collapse and restart with fresh jury members.
The images and footage included instances of Varley “jump scaring” the visibly exhausted and drowsy child to rouse him, alongside far more potentially fatal examples.
Officers retrieved multiple photographs of Preston captured four days before his death, spanning three minutes 12 seconds, during a sexual assault.
Preston is pictured alongside his beloved teddy bears, hanging over the upper rail of his cot, his neck positioned on the bar with his legs in a “frog like” stance, appearing asleep or unconscious.
Liquid drips from his mouth, his tongue jutting out and his lips blue from oxygen deprivation. The photographs are too disturbing for police to make public.
Four days afterwards, 90 minutes before his emergency hospital dash, Varley filmed another clip, while simultaneously using Snapchat and browsing emails, showing Preston in severe distress, barely breathing and taking “agonal breaths”. Preston was initially described as a cheerful, smiling baby, evident in his early photographs.
However, he was later described as having a “blank” expression, a symptom that child abuse expert Dr Joanne Gifford explained to the jury as “frozen watchfulness”, a trauma and stress response to child abuse.
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