A baby boy allegedly murdered by a teacher was ‘left at his mercy and paid with his life’ in the ‘final act in a litany of psychological and sexual ill-treatment’, a court heard today.
Preston Davey’s death aged just 13 months was a ‘tragedy waiting to happen’, prosecutor Peter Wright KC told jurors.
Jamie Varley, a secondary school head of year, is on trial at Preston Crown Court for his murder, while his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley is accused of charges including causing or allowing the death of a child.
Both men deny all charges against them.
The couple were adopting Preston and had been given custody almost four months before the infant died on July 27, 2023.
Mr Wright, in his closing speech, said: ‘It was supposed to be the start of a new life together’.
But after the baby’s death at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, the prosecutor told jurors his body showed evidence of a ‘sinister pathology’.
The court heard Preston was a healthy boy with no history of seizures when placed with Varley, 37, and McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, a sales manager.
He died from acute upper airways obstruction after a third seizure within weeks.
Tragic infant Preston Davey, who died aged just 13 months on July 27, 2023
Mr Wright said the baby’s body and ‘the facts of the case point unerringly to the conclusion that Preston had been sexually abused and killed’.
The prosecutor also highlighted how Preston – ‘when in the defendants’ care’… developed ‘a susceptibility to bruises’.
The court heard Preston had seizures on May 25, June 15 and on the day of his death, as well as other serious injuries on July 23 – photographed by Varley – and on July 27.
On the morning of his death, Preston was ‘in good health and uninjured’ but later twice went into ‘apparent respiratory distress’, the first filmed on Varley’s mobile phone camera followed by his fatal collapse soon after, the court heard.
Mr Wright said the bruises and injuries combined with the seizures and acute upper airway obstruction were ‘quite a coincidence’.
He added: ‘Not a coincidence is the common denominator sitting in the dock.’
Mr Wright accused Varley of initially ‘taking out annoyance’ he was feeling towards his partner through rough treatment of Preston, which became sexual abuse.
The court heard McGowan-Fazakerley knew the ‘glaringly obvious’ risk to Preston from Varley, ‘which he had chosen to ignore and done nothing to avert’.
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 – became ‘carried away in the moment and carried on until Preston was in terminal decline’.
He added that although the ‘obstruction of airways captured on Mr Varley’s phone should have resulted in him seeking medical aid’ he ‘had only just started’ the abuse and went on to cause serious internal injury.
Mr Wright said it was ‘the final act in a litany of psychological and sexual ill-treatment that had become all too common at the end of his short life’.
The prosecutor said Varley’s sexual interest in the baby began ‘within weeks of Preston coming to live with them’ by taking sexually-motivated pictures.
Sales rep John McGowan-Fazakerley, who denies causing or allowing Preston Davey’s death
Conduct progressed through to a ‘sexual assault of the gravest type’ by both men as he was in his cot on June 23, it is claimed.
Mr Wright said Preston was placed in a standing position that was ‘wholly unsafe’ with his head leaning over cot bars and body ‘propped up by a soft toy’
Each man acted either as ‘abuser or encourager’ and the danger was ‘immediate and blindingly obvious’, he added.
The same day, the court heard Varley snapped an injury to Preston ‘most likely’ to have been caused by sexual assault, sending the picture to his boyfriend.
Teacher Jamie Varley, left, with his boyfriend and co-accused John McGowan-Fazakerley
Mr Wright said: ‘The image was a memento. Failure to draw attention was a deliberate act of concealment to avoid alerting authorities to the peril Preston was in.’
The prosecutor told how an earlier incident where Preston’s elbow was broken on May 5 – for which Varley is charged with causing grievous bodily harm – ‘was caused by deliberate forceful twisting or pulling’.
Mr Wright said Varley concocted a ‘charade’ to explain away Preston’s death – claiming he fell off a bathchair into water.
But Mr Wright told of ‘some very curious features’ – pointing to Preston’s ‘noticeably dry hair’, an ’empty bath tub’, while the bath seat – supposedly ‘thrown into the hand basin’ in panic – ‘had not dislodged the sponge sitting on the mixer tap’.
Lack of water in the lungs of a supposedly drowned baby ‘remains an unexplained and physiological mystery,’ Mr Wright added.
While an autopsy showed ‘no pathological findings consistent with drowning’, there were ‘bruises and injuries caused by slapping, prodding and gripping’, he said.
Mr Wright said Preston suffered ‘ill treatment by ever-rougher and more insidious conduct and handling’, and was ‘at the mercy of Jamie Varley’s attention’ on July 27, paying ‘with his life’.
Closing speeches on behalf of both defendants are to be made tomorrow.
Varley denies murder, manslaughter, causing grievous bodily harm, sexual assault, making and sharing indecent images.
McGowan-Fazakerley denies causing or allowing the death of a child, sexual assault and child cruelty.
The trial continues.
