A teacher s£xually assaulted a baby boy he was adopting then filmed him as he lay on a bed showing signs that he had stopped breathing, a murde£r trial heard on Monday, April 20, 2026.
Little Preston Davey was allegedly “routinely ill-treated” by Jamie Varley, who also took indecent pictures and videos of the 13-month-old.
Varley, 37, is accused of k!lling the child, along with 25 other charges relating to his s£xual and physical mistreatment.
While appearing in court on Monday, April 20, Varley stood in the dock at Preston Crown Court alongside his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, who is accused of causing or allowing the d£ath of the child and four other offences.
Both men deny all charges.
Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, told the court that, on the day Preston di£d, and shortly before, Varley s£xually assaulted him causing serious internal injuries. He then failed to seek medical help, causing further harm.
When Varley’s phone was seized there was footage of Preston, recorded by Varley, lying on a bed, that day. He was showing “physical signs of respiratory arrest”, and his lips were blue, the court heard. The prosecution say Varley did nothing to help the baby and just carried on recording.
Preston’s short life had “more than its share of misfortune”, the court was told, having been put in emergency foster care after his birth. But Preston had been a “perfectly healthy boy” before he was adopted by the defendants in April of 2023.
He was admitted to hospital with injuries three times in the just under four months after being adopted, before his d£ath on July 27, 2023.
Mr Wright told the jury of six women and six men: “This is inevitably a highly emotionally charged case. It’s a terrible case because it involves the d£ath of a very, very young child. It is inevitable that it will provoke strong feelings in anyone who hears the details of this case.”
Preston had been born on June 16, 2022, and aged nine months in April 2023, placed with the defendants for them to adopt, living at their home on Staining Road, Blackpool.
Less than four months later, at about 6.30pm on July 27, 2023, he was brought to the Accident and Emergency Department of Blackpool Victoria Hospital by the defendants. He was unconscious and in a state of cardiac arrest, Mr Wright told the court.
Medics tried to revive him but he was pronounced d£ad less than an hour later. A post-mortem gave the cause of his d£ath to be acute upper airways obstruction, a result either of a smothering most likely with a hand or soft fabric or by the insertion of an object or objects into his mouth.
Mr Wright continued: “As terrible as it is, this tragedy was not the result of some dr£adful yet unforeseen accident, or natural phenomenon. The evidence gathered during the investigation into his untimely de@th revealed a much more sinister pathology.
“We say the evidence demonstrates that he was murd£red by one of the people entrusted with his wellbeing; one of his proposed adoptive parents.
“We say the person responsible for k!lling Preston Davey was the defendant, Jamie Varley. But that was not the only tragedy to befall him when in the care of these defendants,” the prosecutor continued. “In the final months of his brief life, we say he was routinely ill-treated, s£xually abused and physically assaulted.”
A post-mortem showed the child had suffered around 40 injuries over the course of the four months he was in their care, injuries including 30 external bruises, a fracture to his upper left arm and internal bruising to his mouth, throat and other parts of his body.
Varley was mostly responsible, but evidence recovered by detectives implicates both men in s£xual assault – and McGowan-Fazakerley, failing to protect him, Mr Wright said.
On the day he di£d at the time of or shortly before the final fatal assault, Varley had s£xually assaulted the baby causing internal injuries, while home alone with the child and his co-accused out at work, it was alleged.
After Varley’s arrest and the seizure of his mobile phone, the footage was found that he had recorded earlier that day of the little boy lying on a bed with physical and obvious signs of respiratory arrest, but the defendant did not attempt recovery or seek medical help.
It was only later that both defendants took Preston to hospital, by which time it was too late to save him.
While McGowan-Fazakerley was out at work when Varley fatally assaulted him, he had joint responsibility for caring for the child, had daily contact and should have been aware of what was going on and protected the youngster.
But not only was he aware of the abuse, he participated in it, Mr Wright said.
The prosecutor warned jurors to “steel themselves” as images of the child were shown on screen, the prosecution said, after he had been s£xually assaulted.
Varley had also taken a number of images and videos of the abuse, but these were not “happy snaps of family life” – but indecent images, the jury was told. The defendants appeared to be a happy, stable couple, but that was far from the truth, Mr Wright said.
Varley denies murd£r, m@nslaughter, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, grievous bodily harm, s£xual assault of a child, 13 counts of taking indecent photos or videos of a child, one of distributing an indecent photo of a child, to his co-accused, and one of making an indecent photo.
McGowan-Fazakerley denies allowing the d£ath of a child, three counts of child cruelty and one count of the s£xual assault of a child.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday morning, April 21.