Teacher guilty of sexually abusing and murdering adopted baby
Emma Stanley & Rachael Lazaro | 15 June 2026A teacher has been found guilty of sexually abusing and murdering the 13-month-old baby boy he adopted with his partner.
Preston Davey died in July 2023 at the hands of Jamie Varley, 37, who took a year off work to adopt him.
Varley, from Blackpool, told police Preston had accidentally drowned in a bath, but a post-mortem examination discovered the child had suffered 40 injuries.
His partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, has been found guilty of sexual assault, child cruelty and allowing the death of a child. The pair will be sentenced on Thursday.
Warning: This article contains distressing informationPreston was adopted by Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley, a financial sales manager, in April 2023 and in the next four months he suffered sexual abuse and ill-treatment, the trial at Preston Crown Court heard. . .
. . . Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were approved for adoption and Preston began living at their home in Blackpool in April 2023, when he was nine months old.
But in the just under four months he was in their care, he was routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted, suffering 40 traumatic injuries.
He also had indecent images and videos taken of him.
The trial heard Preston had been taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital three times in the months before his death with suspicious bruises noticed by medical staff, but these were explained away.
Preston had also been seen by several social workers.
Varley rushed Preston to hospital for a final time on 27 July, unresponsive. He claimed to have left the child in the bath for a couple of minutes and returned to find him submerged.
But the trial heard Preston's hair was dry, he had a nappy on and he did not appear to have swallowed any water.
A Home Office post-mortem examination ruled out drowning as the cause of death, with the cause found to be acute upper airways obstruction by an object or objects inserted into his mouth. . .
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgld0vywpmo
