Foster mum of murdered baby tells court of ‘gut feeling’ about accused killer adoptive dad and his boyfriend

A foster mother who cared for a boy before he was sexually abused and murdered had a ‘gut feeling’ that the baby was ‘hiding’ from her after he was given up for adoption to a teacher and her boyfriend, a court heard today.

Sandra Cooper looked after Preston Davey for the first ten months of his life before he was placed in the care of Jamie Varley, 37, and his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32.

Initially, Ms Cooper, an experienced foster carer who has cared for 43 children over 27 years, had no concerns about the couple taking on Preston.

She said their introductory meetings were “beautiful” and that they acted like any other new parent excited about adopting a child.

But just days after Preston moved in permanently with Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley, Ms Cooper said she was “concerned” after the couple either failed to attend or canceled two of three planned meetings.

‘I called the social worker and said, ‘I feel like something’s wrong,” he said.

‘I had a feeling. “I feel like they’re hiding it from me,” I said.

‘I started to worry when different reasons started coming (as to why they couldn’t attend).’

Former secondary school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, denied a total of 25 charges against him

Varley’s partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, denied five charges against him

Varley, a textile teacher, is on trial at Preston Crown Court accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Preston, while sales representative McGowan-Fazakerley is also accused of sexually assaulting the baby and allowing her death.

Preston was placed in the couple’s care at their semi-detached home in Blackpool, Lancashire, on 3 April 2023, aged 10 months. He died by drowning four months later.

Ms Cooper said that after Preston was placed, she contacted Amy Shepherdson, a social worker at Oldham Council who was in charge of the adoption, because she was concerned the couple were making excuses not to attend formal contact meetings.

She said they were eventually ‘forced to visit’ Barton Grange Garden Centre, near Lancaster, Lancashire, on 19 April 2023, but felt this was made ‘difficult’ for her and her husband Paul, who was looking after two other babies and a four-year-old child at the time.

Ms Cooper, who sobbed at times as she gave evidence, said: ‘I was really worried.

‘I just remember going to the farm shop… it was a long way. We had to be there very early in the morning and I had two other babies so I had to get out of bed at 6.30am to pick them up.

‘It was as if they didn’t want us to come. It couldn’t have been harder… but I would have walked to the ends of the earth for this visit, and that’s what we did.’

Ms Cooper said Preston ‘looked a bit stiff and a bit vacant’ at the meeting, but added: ‘We hadn’t seen him for a while. We put him aside, as sometimes happens… I was really glad to see him.’

The following month, on May 8, the couple also missed a visit they were supposed to take Preston to Mrs. Cooper’s birthday and retirement party.

Family photo of tragic Preston Davey, who died aged 13 months in July 2023

Court drawing of Jamie Varley (left) and partner John McGowan-Fazakerley (right)

About a week later they filed a complaint against him.

Ms Cooper said it devastated her because she felt it was ‘unfair’ and from then on she would never see Preston again.

The complaint made to social services included that the men were disturbed by the presence of another foster carer during one of their introductory visits to Ms Cooper’s home.

He added that this left him fearful that he might lose his job.

“I took it really badly,” Ms. Cooper said.

‘I took this to be the day I would never see Preston again. He wasn’t justified in complaining but I thought there was a reason for them to say ‘We fell out with him’ and I wouldn’t be able to see him again – it was like a day of mourning for me.

‘I was devastated, I cried all day.’

Ms Cooper said she tried to call Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley to ask for a statement but they refused to answer her calls and she eventually removed them from the ‘Team Preston’ Whatsapp group, which had been set up to communicate together.

The complaint was never taken forward or considered.

But Nick Johnson, KC, defending Varley, pointed out that Ms Cooper continued to respond to messages the couple had sent, including a video of Preston crawling, until mid-June.

Asked why she responded, Ms Cooper said ‘they would do that all the time’, adding: ‘But I rang the social worker about that video.’

Preston died in July of that year, about four months after being placed in the care of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley.

An autopsy found he had 40 separate injuries and a pathologist described his cause of death as ‘acute obstruction of the upper respiratory tract’.

Varley denies murder, sexual assault, assault by penetration, GBH for breaking his elbow three weeks before Preston’s death, four counts of cruelty to children, 14 counts of making and taking an indecent photograph of a child and one count of distributing an indecent photograph of a child.

McGowan-Fazakerley denied causing or permitting the death of a child and two counts of cruelty to children.

The two face two additional joint charges of sexual assault and cruelty to a child.

The trial, which is expected to last six to eight weeks, continues.