Baby ‘murdered’ by teacher died from ‘final act in a litany of psychological and sexual ill-treatment’, court hears

A boy allegedly murdered by a teacher was ‘left at the mercy of the final act of psychological and sexual maltreatment’ and paid with his life, a court heard today.

Prosecutor Peter Wright KC told jurors that the death of Preston Davey, aged just 13 months, was ‘a tragedy waiting to happen’.

Secondary school headteacher Jamie Varley is on trial at Preston Crown Court for the murder, while his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley has been charged with charges including causing or allowing the death of a child.

Both men deny all charges against them.

The couple were adopting Preston and were granted custody almost four months before the baby died on July 27, 2023.

Mr Wright said in his closing speech: ‘This was supposed to be the start of a new life together.’

But following the baby’s death at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, the prosecutor told jurors there was evidence of ‘evil pathology’ in the baby’s body.

The court heard Preston was a healthy child with no history of seizures when he was placed with sales manager Varley, 37, and McGowan-Fazakerley, 32.

He died of acute upper respiratory tract obstruction after a third seizure within a few weeks.

Mr Wright said the baby’s body and ‘the facts of the case point unmistakably to the conclusion that Preston was sexually abused and murdered’.

The prosecutor also highlighted how Preston – ‘while in the custody of the defendants’… had developed a ‘sensitivity to bruises’.

The court heard Preston suffered seizures on May 25, June 15 and the day he died, as well as other serious injuries on July 23 and July 27, which were photographed by Varley.

The court heard that on the morning of his death, Preston was “in good health and uninjured” but he later suffered two “visible respiratory distress”, the first of which was recorded by Varley’s mobile phone camera, before he fatally collapsed a short time later.

Mr Wright said the bruises and injuries, along with the seizures and acute upper respiratory tract obstruction, were ‘quite coincidental’.

He added: ‘It is no coincidence that the common denominator lies in the dock.’

Mr Wright accused Varley of initially ‘taking out the discomfort’ he felt towards his partner by treating Preston harshly, which escalated into sexual abuse.

The court heard McGowan-Fazakerley knew of the “dazzlingly obvious” risk to Preston from Varley which he “chose to ignore and did nothing to prevent”.

Jamie Varley, 37, denies murder, sexual assault, cruelty and making indecent images

Describing the day Preston died, Mr Wright said Varley – alone with Preston while McGowan-Fazakerley was at work – ‘just got carried away and continued until Preston went into a fatal decline’.

He added that while the ‘obstructed airways’ recorded on Mr Varley’s phone should have caused him to seek medical attention, the abuse had ‘only just begun’, leading to serious internal injury.

Mr Wright said it was ‘the latest act of the psychological and sexual abuse that became so prevalent at the end of his short life’.

The prosecutor said Varley’s sexual interest in the baby began by taking sexually motivated photographs ‘a few weeks after Preston came to live with them’.

Sales agent John McGowan-Fazakerley, who denies causing or allowing the death of Preston Davey

Allegedly, while she was in bed on June 23, both men claimed her behavior escalated into ‘sexual assault of the worst kind’.

Mr Wright said Preston was placed in a ‘completely unsafe’ standing position, with his head resting on the bed bars and his body ‘supported by a soft toy’.

He added that each man was acting either as an ‘abuser or an encourager’ and that the danger was ‘immediate and blindingly obvious’.

On the same day, the court heard Varley injured Preston, which was ‘very likely’ to have been caused by sexual assault, and sent the photo to her boyfriend.

Teacher Jamie Varley leaves with boyfriend and accomplice John McGowan-Fazakerley

Mr Wright said: ‘The image was a memory. Keeping a low profile was a deliberate act of concealment to avoid alerting the authorities to the danger Preston was in.’

The prosecutor described an earlier incident on May 5, in which Preston’s elbow was broken and Varley was charged with causing grievous bodily harm, ‘resulting from deliberate forceful bending or pulling’.

Mr Wright said Varley made up a ‘charade’ to explain Preston’s death, claiming he had fallen from his bath chair into the water.

But Mr Wright mentioned ‘some very interesting features’, pointing out Preston’s ‘markedly dry hair’, ‘an empty bathtub’ and the bath seat ‘thrown into the sink’, supposedly in a panic, ‘failing to dislodge the sponge sitting on the mixer tap’.

Mr Wright added that the lack of water in the lungs of an allegedly drowned baby ‘remains an unexplained and physiological mystery’.

While the autopsy showed “no pathological findings consistent with strangulation,” there were “bruises and injuries resulting from slapping, poking and grasping,” he said.

Mr Wright said Preston was ‘abused by increasingly harsh and insidious behavior and treatment’ and on July 27 he was ‘at the mercy of Jamie Varley’s attention’ for which he ‘paid with his life’.

Closing statements will be given tomorrow on behalf of both defendants.

Varley denies murder, manslaughter, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault and creating and sharing indecent images.

McGowan-Fazakerley denies causing or permitting the death of a child, sexual assault and cruelty to a child.

The trial continues.