Moment teacher who allegedly sexually abused and killed a baby boy he was adopting threatens to ‘fight till the day I die’ after he was confronted by police
The moment when the teacher, who allegedly sexually abused and killed his adopted boy, threatened ‘I will fight the police until the day I die’ after being accused of murder.
Jamie Varley, 37, made the comment to a female police officer who interviewed him 13 months after the death of Preston Davey.
After revealing a specialist pathologist concluded Preston had been sexually abused and strangled, the former comprehensive school headteacher insists: ‘I didn’t do it.’
He replies: ‘Well, I’ll claim you killed him, Jamie’, then he replies: ‘If you make that suggestion, I’ll fight you until the day I die.’
Varley, clearly agitated and upset, points to the officer and adds: ‘You’re going to be in trouble one day, because you’re dead wrong. ‘I don’t know how to prove it, but you’re wrong because I didn’t do it.’
Varley and her boyfriend John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, are accused of ‘routinely’ mistreating, sexually assaulting and physically assaulting Preston over a four-month period between April and July 2023. After Varley was taken from his birth mother, he was placed with them and taken into care when he was only five days old.
Textile teacher Varley, known as Jae, has also been charged with murder, while sales representative McGowan-Fazakerley is also accused of allowing Preston’s death. Both men deny the charges.
The video interviews were shown to a jury at Preston Crown Court last week but were made public today.
Preston Davey was photographed by his stepdad Jamie Varley, 37, the morning after his first nap at his new ‘dad’s’ house. Varley is accused of sexually assaulting and murdering Preston
Jamie Varley, 37, was interviewed by police about Preston’s death in June 2025.
He got angry and pointed out that the female police officer who interviewed him accused him of sexual abuse and murder.
Varley’s partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, denied five charges against him
Preston was not breathing and in cardiac arrest when the couple rushed him to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on the evening of July 27, 2023.
Varley claimed she gave the baby a bath, but she stepped aside to change and returned to find him face down in the water.
But forensic pathologist Dr Alison Armor told the jury there was no evidence Preston had been strangled.
Instead, he concluded that she died of ‘acute upper respiratory tract obstruction’ caused by a deliberate act of suffocation or the insertion of an object into her mouth.
He said he found 20 external bruises on Preston’s head and body, as well as serious internal injuries consistent with sexual assault, including bruising to the back of her throat and bladder.
In the clip, the detective tells Varley that the pathologist believes Preston was sexually assaulted shortly before her death.
‘Bull****’ Varley replies.
‘You’re absolutely wrong.’
When asked to explain Preston’s bruising, he replied: ‘No comment.’
He repeatedly denies causing any of Preston’s bruises and injuries, saying they were accidental and that he had ‘no idea’ how he got them.
She also told police she ‘did not believe’ the baby had that many bruises or that the pathologist’s report was ‘accurate’.
Earlier, the police officer also showed Varley a series of images and videos found on his mobile phone, which he said were evidence of allegations of cruelty or indecency.
These include a video lasting 14 minutes and 31 seconds in which a ‘whining’ Preston is left alone in the bathroom.
Dr Alison Armor found bruises and serious internal injuries on Preston’s body, which he said were consistent with sexual assault.
Preston Davey died and 40 injured after being abused, jury was told
Court drawing of Jamie Varley (left) and partner John McGowan-Fazakerley (right)
Varley claimed he set up his phone in the bathroom to record but remained out of sight on the landing ‘to see how he (Preston) would react to his company’.
The officer says: ‘He’s agitated, he’s whining, I would describe him as distressed. Why don’t you go comfort him?
‘Did you leave him in the bathroom because you were tired of him?’
Varley replies: ‘I was keeping an eye on him. He’s not troubled. We had no intention of hurting him.’
When asked about the videos and pictures on his phone showing Preston playing naked on the play mat, in the children’s pool and in the bathroom, Varley replies: ‘Unlike you, I don’t think about his genitals 24/7.
‘You are making a mountain out of a molehill. Totally innocent, so ridiculous. Now you understand like I’m a fucking pervert.
‘I guess that’s your job.’
Varley, head of Year 11 at South Shore Academy in Blackpool, Lancashire, denies murder, manslaughter, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, inflicting grievous bodily harm, sexually assaulting a child, taking indecent photographs or videos of a child, distributing an indecent photograph of a child to an accomplice and taking an indecent 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 continues.
