Boyfriend of teacher accused of murdering baby they were trying to adopt told police he ‘felt like I was in a soap’ when he collapsed and died in hospital
The boyfriend of a teacher accused of sexually abusing and killing a boy they were trying to adopt told police he felt like he was on a soap opera when the boy collapsed and died in hospital.
John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, returned home from work in July 2023 to find his partner Jamie Varley, 37, ‘panicked’ because 13-month-old Preston Davey was vomiting.
After a few minutes the sales representative claimed the child had become ‘limp’ and ‘unresponsive’ so the couple took him to nearby Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
On arrival at Preston Crown Court he was told he was not breathing and had suffered a heart attack.
Doctors tried desperately for almost an hour to resuscitate Preston, but he could not be saved. He was announced dead around 19.20.
Today, jurors at Preston Crown Court were shown video interviews, almost two years later in June 2025, of detectives questioning McGowan-Fazakerley, who is accused of child cruelty, sexual assault and allowing or causing Preston’s death.
Asked what happened when they arrived at A&E, McGowan-Fazakerley said: ‘It was like hell… the whole thing was like I was in a soap opera (opera).
‘Jae was running around like a headless chicken, it was scary. He said everything was his fault.
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
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
‘He was screaming and yelling and running around and the nurses were trying to help him… I went into shock.’
Varley told police she gave Preston a bath but walked away for a while and returned to find the baby face down in the water.
However, the jury was told that Preston was not strangled and the specialist pathologist who performed the autopsy, Dr. Alison Armor instead concluded that he died of ‘acute upper respiratory tract obstruction’.
He presented evidence that the baby had internal injuries, including a large bruise on the back of her throat, consistent with sexual abuse.
McGowan-Fazakerley later broke down in tears in the dock as she told detectives adopting Preston was ‘everything’ the couple, who met in 2019, ‘ever wanted’.
The court heard they went through a “robust” review process before Preston was released into their care in April 2023.
McGowan-Fazakerley added: ‘He (Preston) was so, so brilliant.’
She said social workers didn’t want to show the soon-to-be parent Preston’s photo because it was too cute. He said they wanted them to fall in love with his character, not his picture.
Preston Davey died and 40 injured after being abused, jury was told
McGowan-Fazakerley, an only child, admitted she was struggling to adapt to a new baby but claimed Varley, who has many siblings, nieces and nephews, knew what to do ‘instinctively’.
‘His instincts were there,’ he said. ‘I used to say (to Varley) ‘You know what Preston needs before he tells you’ and he got it straight away.’
Varley, a textile teacher and head of Year 11 at a comprehensive school in the Lancashire seaside resort, denies murder, manslaughter, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a child, sexually assaulting a child, taking indecent photographs or videos of a child, distributing an indecent photograph of a child to other defendants and one count of sexual assault. inappropriate photo.
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 continues.
