Jamie Varley, a 37-year-old teacher from Blackpool, has been found guilty of sexually abusing and murdering 13‑month‑old Preston Davey — the baby he and his partner, John McGowan‑Fazakerley, adopted.
Preston, born June 2022, was taken into care and placed with foster parents at five days old. He lived with them for the first 10 months of his life. Varley and McGowan‑Fazakerley were approved as adopters and Preston moved into their home in April 2023, aged nine months. Varley had taken a year off work to adopt him.
Over the next four months, the court heard, Preston was routinely ill‑treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted, suffering 40 traumatic injuries. Indecent photos and videos were taken of him. He was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital three times with suspicious bruises, which were explained away. Social workers had also seen him.
On 27 July Varley rushed Preston to hospital, saying the child had been left in the bath and had drowned. But Preston’s hair was dry, he wore a nappy and had not swallowed water. A Home Office post‑mortem ruled out drowning; the cause of death was acute upper airways obstruction by objects inserted into his mouth.
In court Varley collapsed and retched as guilty verdicts were read. McGowan‑Fazakerley showed no reaction; his father shook his head.
Det Ch Insp Andy Fallows called the men “pure evil”. He added: “Almost from day one, they set about abusing Preston and making his short life a harrowing tale of misery and pain,” and: “For the first nine months of his life Preston was a happy and healthy child but by the end he was a broken shell. “This was due to the sordid and wicked acts of Varley and McGowan‑Fazakerley.”
Karen Tonge said it was one of the “most shocking and horrific cases I have dealt with in my career”. Varley was convicted of murder and numerous sexual and child cruelty offences; McGowan‑Fazakerley was found guilty of allowing the death of a child, child cruelty and one count of sexual assault. Both will be sentenced on Thursday by Mr Justice Turner. Turner told jurors, “bearing in mind what we have called upon you to do”, they would be exempt from jury service for life.
A spokesperson for Oldham Council said: “The death of any child is a tragedy, but this is a particularly heart‑wrenching and disturbing case” and “We are thankful that the perpetrators of the sickening murder and abuse of an innocent child have today been convicted for their crimes.” Adoption Now called it a “deeply upsetting case, and our thoughts are with everyone affected by these truly awful crimes” and said it followed “a strict and rigorous process… in the assessment and approval of adopters”.
Preston’s mother, Sarah Davey, now 42, had been jailed at 14 for the murder of a frail pensioner in 1998 and had been in and out of prison since then. In court she and Preston’s grandmother sobbed as 29 guilty verdicts were returned.
