A baby died after suffering serious sexual assaults in a ‘sinister’ campaign of abuse at the hands of a teacher who was in the process of adopting him, a court heard today.
Preston Davey was just 13 months-old when was ‘suffocated to death’ and had bruising inside his mouth, jurors were told.
He also had severe internal injuries, the prosecution said.
Secondary school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, is accused of murdering Preston, who died in hospital after being assaulted at the home in Blackpool, Lancashire, which he shared with partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32.
Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, told jurors at Preston Crown Court that Preston had suffered 40 injuries – most critically a blockage of his upper airway.
There were ‘linear bruises’ consistent with a slap and bruising to Preston’s forehead ‘consistent with gripping’, plus abrasions to his face, mouth and behind his ears, the court was told.
In what he called a ‘distressing case’, Mr Wright told a jury: ‘Someone, with something, so compromised this little boy’s ability to breathe that he was smothered to death’.
Preston had also been assaulted with ‘such force’ that he suffered ‘significant internal injuries’, the prosecutor said.
Family picture of tragic Preston Davey, who died in July 2023 aged 13 months
A court sketch of Jamie Varley (left) and his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley (right)
The court heard Preston had suffered previous injuries which led to him being admitted to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on three occasions, including breathing difficulties, seizures, nose bleeds and an injury later found to be fracture to an elbow.
Mr Wright said while staff ‘noticed facial bruises’… ‘it was explained sufficiently by the couple as to be discounted as having been deliberately caused’.
In reality, Preston – who had been placed with the couple four months before he died – was being ‘routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and assaulted’, it is alleged.
Mr Wright said there was a ‘sinister pathology’ to the abuse of Preston, who died at Victoria Hospital on July 27, 2023.
He had been brought to hospital by the defendants ‘unconscious and in a state of cardiac arrest’ at 6.30pm and was pronounced dead 48 minutes later ‘despite the best efforts of medical staff.
Varley was at home alone with Preston at the time of the final alleged assault but fellow prospective adoptive parent McGowan-Fazakerley ‘ought to have been aware of the risk’ of abuse and ‘failed to take such steps as could reasonably be expected to protect Preston Davey’, Mr Wright said.
Rather than seeking immediate medical help as Preston lay struggling to breathe, Varley made a video recording ‘while the boy was lying on a bed with physical and obvious signs of respiratory arrest’.
Mr Wright said of Preston: ‘He’d stopped breathing, he had blue lips.’
But the court heard Varley waited until his boyfriend returned from work in Manchester before seeking help.
Varley had previously made other indecent videos and taken indecent photographs of Preston, who was ‘routinely ill-treated’, the court heard.
Preston Davey died after suffering horrific abuse and was found to have 40 injuries, jury told
Mr Wright described how one image was taken by Varley as a ‘memento’ of an earlier assault on the baby.
The prosecutor added the collection of photographs was ‘not the usual type of snaps taken by a doting parent’.
Meanwhile, sales rep McGowan-Fazakerley had participated with Varley in an earlier assault of Preston in his cot four days before his death, the court heard.
Forensic examination of the house found McGowan-Fazakerley’s DNA close by, jurors were told.
A three-second video was taken of a naked Preston by Varley on his iPhone, who sent it to his boyfriend with a comment about the infant’s anatomy, it was claimed.
The court was told of other incidents of neglect, including a 14-minute video of Preston ‘left unattended slithering around in a bath’, Mr Wright said.
The baby was also shown being ‘violently’ spun around on a children’s ‘teacup’ roundabout in a play area leaving him ‘disorientated’, the court heard.
Mr Wright said the incident was ‘an event that Jamie Varley clearly found so amusing it was later set to music’ – Kylie Minogue’s song Spinning Around – by Varley, ‘stored on his phone and shared’.
Preston was also videoed being subjected to sleep deprivation and loud noises and music, it was claimed.
Mr Wright added: ‘The warning signs were there for all to see that unaddressed, unchallenged or unaverted, were ever increasingly likely to lead to the infliction of serious physical harm to Preston Davey, particularly if he was left alone and in Jamie Varley’s company.’
Former secondary school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, denies a total of 25 charges
The prosecutor also told how McGowan-Fazakerley was ‘clearly aware of the risk Jamie Varley posed to the physical and psychological wellbeing of Preston Davey, and of the serious risk of physical harm being caused to him by his partner; yet he did nothing to protect Preston from it’.
Mr Wright told jurors: ‘On the evidence you hear, you may conclude that Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley were in fact wholly unsuited to the role of adoptive parents.
‘Sadly, this fact only became so patently obvious when, for Preston Davey, it was too late.’
The court hard Varley was ‘finding it extremely difficult to cope with the responsibility of looking after Preston, particularly on his own’ – and had begged a colleague for anti-depressants and beta blockers.
Prosecutor Mr Wright said he asked the colleague at his school who was on the tablets if she could order extra and give them to him.
‘She refused, advising him to go to the doctors,’ Mr Wright added, but Varley declined saying it could ‘affect the adoption’ if he received a prescription for mental health issues.
At one point, the court heard he told his partner: ‘I can’t cope John. You need to take him.’
Jurors were told neighbours of the couple ‘also painted a rather more unsettled picture of life’ with ‘lots of crying day and night’.
Varley’s partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, has pleaded not guilty to five charges
Mr Wright added: ‘At one stage, McGowan-Fazakerley came round to apologise. To the neighbours it sounded like the couple were struggling in their new role as parents of a very young child and needed a break. The neighbours also heard raised voices between the couple.’
The court heard Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley had been in a ‘seemingly stable and loving relationship’ and ‘anxious to adopt a child’.
They were approved as adoptive parents in January 2023 and their proposed adoption of Preston, who was in good health, approved that March.
After a series of visits to see Preston, who was being looked after by foster carers, he was handed over to the couple’s care at the beginning of April.
But within weeks on May 15, the court heard McGowan-Fazakerley made a 999 call – abandoned within four seconds after a voiced could be heard saying: ‘put it down’.
Mr Wright said: ‘The voice in the background could only have been that of Jamie Varley. The police called back. A male answered and explained that he had called 999 in error, meaning instead to have called the non-emergency number 111.
‘Oddly, it doesn’t appear the caller then called 111.’
A later call to 111 was made by McGowan-Fazakerley from Varley’s mother’s home, reporting Preston having ‘breathing problems’. The call handler arranged for medical staff to ring back but the return call went unanswered, the court was told.
When a health visitor called the next morning, ‘no reference was made’ by the defendants ‘to the events of the previous night’, Mr Wright said.
The barrister told how Preston was first admitted to hospital in late May with a ‘nose bleed, seizure and reported breathing difficulties’ – which were put down to a chest infection.
But Mr Wright said post mortem tests on Preston’s lung tissue disclosed potential ‘earlier episodes of respiratory obstruction’.
A further hospital admission followed on June 30 for apparent fever, the court heard.
When bruising was also noted, one of the defendants showed ‘a video of Preston pulling a toy box onto himself’ and Varley said he ‘bruised easily’, jurors were told.
Mr Wright added: ‘He also volunteered the observation: ‘You lot are going to think we have been abusing him or something’.’
But the prosecutor said the video was 12 days old and ‘could not therefore have been the real cause of the bruising’
A staff member also felt Varley appeared ‘overly protective’ towards Preston, the court was told.
Mr Wright said Preston returned to hospital only a week later with a fractured elbow and Varley ‘gave a number of wholly contradictory explanations of how the ‘accident’ had occurred’.
Varley denies murder, sexual assault, assault by penetration, inflicting GBH for breaking Preston’s elbow three weeks before his death, four counts of child cruelty, 14 counts of making indecent images of a child, and one charge of distributing an indecent image of a child.
McGowan-Fazakerley denies causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of child cruelty.
The pair face two further joint charges of sexual assault and child cruelty.
The trial, expected to last six to eight weeks, continues.
