Moment teacher ‘who sexually assaulted and murdered baby he was adopting’ collapsed and wailed ‘it’s my fault’ after being told child was not going to survive

A teacher accused of sexually abusing and murdering his adopted boy screamed ‘hysterically’ on behalf of his mother and cried saying he was ‘going to hell’ after being told she was dead.

Jamie Varley, 37, collapsed and begged hospital doctors to ‘kill me’ after being told 13-month-old Preston Davey would not survive.

She also initially refused to go to the baby’s bedside to comfort him, as doctors stopped CPR and declared him dead at around 7.20pm on July 27, 2023.

Multiple video images from police officers’ body-worn cameras were shown to a jury at Preston Crown Court today.

Varley, a secondary school textile teacher and prefect, and her boyfriend, 32-year-old John McGowan-Fazakerley, are on trial accused of cruelty and ill-treatment of the baby who was placed in their care four months ago.

In a clip shot in the hospital funeral room more than three and a half hours after Preston’s death, Varley could be seen talking to the dead child, cradled in her arms.

He can be heard saying: ‘I’ll probably never see you again, I’ll definitely go to hell.’

Varley, wearing a distinctive red Jurassic Park T-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms, later commented on the baby’s ‘thick lashes and beautiful eyes’.

Varley, who arrived at the hospital barefoot, was later seen wandering outside and refusing to believe Preston was gone.

Varley, 37, is accused of sexually assaulting Preston twice on July 27, 2023, the day of her death.

Varley and her boyfriend, 32-year-old John McGowan-Fazakerley, in a photo taken outside the hospital minutes after Preston was pronounced dead. They deny abusing or harming the child

Preston Davey was photographed by his stepdad Jamie Varley, 37, the morning after his first nap at his newly adopted ‘dad’s’ house. Varley is accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Preston

While the other defendants try to console him, Varley says: ‘They’re going to kidnap me because of negligence.’

The court was previously shown CCTV footage of the couple running barefoot to the emergency department of Blackpool Victoria Hospital at around 6.20pm with the limp baby boy, who was wearing only a nappy.

Paramedics spent 50 minutes trying to resuscitate Preston, who had no heartbeat and was not breathing, but eventually realized their attempts were futile and had to let him go.

Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were invited to be with the baby at the end of the match, but in clips shown on the pitch Varley could be seen refusing to accept what had happened.

He collapses on the floor of the hospital corridor and is heard saying; ‘I can’t, no, I did this, it’s my fault, no, no, no, no, no.’

Described as ‘loud’ and ‘dramatic’, Varley then screams for his mother, slaps himself and pleads with doctors: ‘Don’t give up on her… this isn’t happening.’

When a nurse tries to persuade her to be at Preston’s bedside, saying ‘your son needs you’, Varley replies: ‘He doesn’t need me, it’s my fault… please take my mother… this isn’t happening… please kill me, please kill me.’

Later, after Preston is pronounced dead, an agitated Varley can be seen wandering and lying on the tarmac outside the hospital entrance, repeating that it was her fault for leaving the baby unattended in the bathroom.

Horrifying images of the moment they arrived at the hospital began to be shown to the court yesterday.

Preston was placed in foster care when he was five days old. He died when he was 13 months old

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

It says: ‘He’s not gone… I’ll go back there and he’ll be smiling and laughing… I can’t live with this if he dies… he’s got his life ahead of him.

‘I shouldn’t have left him, I’m a teacher, I’m a prefect, I’ve had child protection training, you can’t leave them in the bathroom.’

The jury was told Varley claimed Preston fell off the bath seat to put on his pajamas and returned a few minutes later to find him face down in the bathroom.

But the prosecutor’s office says the autopsy did not match that version of events, and a pathologist concluded Preston had been strangled.

The court heard Preston suffered 40 injuries, including those consistent with sexual abuse, and died from ‘acute upper respiratory tract obstruction’, not suffocation.

Dr. Muhammad Ahmed also testified that he examined Preston’s body after his death and found 10 bruises: two on his right thigh, four on his left thigh, two on his forehead, and two on his back, near his spine.

Sister Taghread Jaidy said she too noticed the bruises. He stated that the marks on Preston’s head were ‘old’, while the marks on his left thigh looked like ‘handprints’.

He said Varley was ‘hesitant’ to be with Preston in his final moments but held the hand of McGowan-Fazakerley, who was visibly upset and crying.

Referring to Varley, he added: ‘He was very loud. ‘He was hysterical, he wasn’t following what we were trying to explain to him, he wasn’t listening.’

After resuscitation was stopped, Sister Jaidy said she had to physically stop Varley from continuing CPR.

‘I remember putting my hand on his shoulder and asking him to stop doing chest compressions on Preston,’ he added.

Preston was immediately taken into care by Oldham Council following his birth on June 16, 2022, and was placed with foster parents when he was five days old.

He was adopted after going through an assessment and orientation process in early 2023 and began living with the defendants at their home in Blackpool on 1 April.

Varley denies murder, manslaughter, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, causing grievous bodily harm, sexual assault of a child.

13 counts of taking an indecent photograph or video of a child, distributing an indecent photograph of a child to accomplices, and one count of committing an indecent act.

Photograph.

McGowan-Fazakerley denies authorizing the death of a child, three counts of cruelty to children and one count of sexual assault on a child.

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