Baby killing teacher Jamie Varley sent shockwaves across Blackpool when he was exposed as a cruel murderer
Murderer and paedophile Jamie Varley hid behind a veil of respectability as a high school teacher at a prominent Blackpool school. Here Blackpool Gazette editor Vanessa Sims looks at the case that shocked the nation.
The guilty verdict in the case of a Blackpool teacher accused of the murder of a 13-month-old baby he was trying to adopt was a case that sent shockwaves across Blackpool and the Fylde coast.
Jamie Varley, was a trusted textiles teacher and a Head of Year at South Shore Academy, who was even safeguarding trained. Surely he couldn’t be responsible for the murder of little baby boy Preston Davey - a child he was in the process of adopting?
But the reality was behind his veil of respectability lay a sexual predator who was capable of tormenting and abusing a baby until he passed away.
Lancashire Police began investigating what happened to Preston after they were called by medics to Blackpool Victoria Hospital to the sudden and unexpected death of a child on July 27, 2023.
They arrived at the hospital to discover a theatrical Varley screaming and shouting and refusing to accept baby Preston had passed away.
Jurors at Preston Crown Court had heard doctors had to be firm and force Varley to move away from the baby’s lifeless body when he attempted to resuscitate him after his death.
Over the following few hours Varley and his partner, a more subdued, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, were treated as grieving parents who had tragically lost their beloved baby boy.
But unbeknown to everyone the reality was much, much darker.
Varley spun a series of lies where he claimed he had found little Preston face down in the bath after climbing out of his bath seat while he nipped away for a few seconds to grab some pyjamas.
The 37-year-old claimed the child started to be sick and over a period of time his condition deteriorated.
As financial salesman McGowan-Fazakerley returned home from work in Salford Quays, the pair decided to take the youngster the short distance from their home in Staining Road, Staining to Blackpool Vic by car.
CCTV images at the hospital captured the pair arriving at A+E and running a lifeless baby Preston towards the entrance where they were met by a paramedic who scooped him up off Varley and ran to get him help.
But despite working on the youngster for more than an hour, medics were unable to save him.
During this time Varley made some incriminating comments such as “I’ve killed him” and “I’m going to hell”.
At one point he even collapsed to the floor and screamed for his mum.
But as questions started to be asked about the family, it started to become clear things may not be what they seemed.’
There was no evidence of Preston having been in the bath. There was no water in his lungs, he was wearing a dry nappy and his hair was dry.
It then started to transpire the child had been in and out of hospital three times in less than four months.
Police found evidence Varley had shared with a friend and colleague he was having “dark thoughts” about Preston and he was finding parenthood harder than he imagined it would be.
Lancashire Police doggedly pursued the case finding a specialist child pathologist. But no one could have prepared them from what would be found.
The baby boy described as “sweet and bubbly” by his loving foster carers suffered 40 trauma injuries, internally and externally, including tears and lacerations, with “in excess” of 30 bruises across his body. He had bruising to his bladder and evidence of bleeding into the lungs.
His injuries, including a broken arm he suffered in the weeks before his death, were found to be “non-accidential”.
The Crown Prosecution Service found evidence McGowan-Fazakerley had been at work on the afternoon of the day Preston died.
But it was prosecutors' belief he could not have lived in a house with a baby tormented, abused and ill-treated in such a way and not know what was happening.
Evidence he had sexually abused Preston was also found.
A series of police interviews played to the jury captured the pair’s response to detectives' interviews.
Varley, who changed his appearance dramatically during the investigation by dying his hair blonde and growing it into a bob after being arrested, was visibly angered and agitated by the questions.
When detectives laid out their evidence and said directly to Varley: “Well I’ll make the suggestion you've killed him Jamie.”
He replied: “You make that suggestion and I’ll fight you to the day I die. One day, you guys will be in trouble, because you are absolutely wrong. I don’t know how I’ll prove it but I have absolutely not done it.”
Today 37-year-old ex-South Shore Academy teacher Jamie Varley, of Chandlers Way, Grimsargh and formerly of Staining Road, Staining was convicted of the murder of 13-month-old Preston Davey after a six week trial at Preston Crown Court.
He was also found guilty of two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, grievous bodily harm, sexual 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.
His partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, also of Chandlers Way, Grimsargh and formerly of Staining Road, Staining was found guilty of allowing the death of a child, three counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.
The pair will now be sentenced on Thursday.