A UK gay couple has been found guilty of charges related to the death of 13-month-old Preston Davey. Former teacher Jamie Varley was found guilty at Preston Crown Court of murder, child cruelty, sexual offences, and possessing indecent images relating to Davey. Varley was in the process of adopting the toddler with his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, who was also convicted of allowing the death of a child, child cruelty, and sexual assault, per the Crown Prosecution Service.
Just four months after being placed with the couple, Preston was rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital unconscious and in cardiac arrest. He could not be saved. Varley claimed the child had drowned in the bath, but prosecutors proved that his airway had been deliberately obstructed, per the BBC.
Crown prosecutor Karen Tonge condemned the couple’s actions. “Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley had a responsibility to care for and protect baby Preston,” she said. “They violated that responsibility and 13-month-old Preston was abused with sickening ease.”
“It is difficult to comprehend how the very people who should have loved him could inflict such awful physical and sexual harm on an innocent child,” she continued. “No child should have to go through what Preston went through in the last four months of his short life, and I cannot begin to imagine the toll this has taken on those that loved Preston. My thoughts remain with them all.”
DCI Andy Fellows of Lancashire Police, who led the investigation, described Varley as a “serial manipulator and a serial liar.”
Both defendants will be sentenced on Thursday.
The prosecution's case against Varley was built on evidence, including indecent images found on his phone, taken by the perpetrators of the victim, as well as the post-mortem examination, which ruled out the defendants’ claims of drowning as the cause of death. The post-mortem found 40 external and internal injuries to Davey’s body, some being consistent with "forcible penetration" and sexual abuse.
In the months leading up to his death, Preston had been taken to the hospital on three separate occasions: first with a nosebleed and a seizure, then with a suspicious rash, and finally with a fractured elbow. Despite these concerning injuries, social workers who visited the child at home raised no alarms, per the BBC.
