Prosecution tells jury teacher Jamie Varley's explanation of Preston Davey's death "didn't seem to add up"

A prosecutor has told the jury sitting on the murder case of a soon to be adopted baby boy the explanation of how he sustained his fatal injuries “didn’t seem to add up”.

Jamie Varley, 37, a former teacher at Blackpool’s South Shore Academy is accused of murdering 13-month-old Preston Davey, who died in Blackpool Victoria hospital on July 27, 2023.

His partner and co-accused John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, is accused of causing and allowing the death of a child; two counts of cruelty to a person under 16 and sexual assault of a male child under 13.

The pair, both of Chandlers Way, Grimsargh and formerly of Staining Road, Staining are standing trial at Preston Crown Court.

Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, told the court how after Preston was placed for adoption with the defendants and living with them in Blackpool, he was admitted to Blackpool Victoria on three occasions suffering from breathing difficulties; “seizures”; nose bleeds and a fracture to his elbow.

In what Mr Wright called "a distressing case" he said in total the toddler had suffered 40 injuries including a blockage of his upper airway while in their care. He had bruising inside his mouth, had suffered severe internal injuries and was suffocated to death.

Varley denies murder, manslaughter, 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. McGowan-Fazakerley denies allowing the death of a child, three counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.

Following Preston's death, Mr Wright told the court a former work colleague of Varley's informed police he had revealed to her he was struggling mentally. He claimed he was not bonding with Preston as he had hoped and had thoughts of drowning him or suffocating him but that he would never carry them out.

Mr Wright said: "We say, in the context of this case it is inconceivable that this sort of disclosure would have been made by Jamie Varley to a former colleague and not to his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley.

"He does not appear to have been keeping such dark thoughts to himself.

"Why, we ask rhetorically, would he keep such thoughts from the person with whom he shared the care of Preston Davey and yet disclose them to a former work colleague if what he was seeking to do was to unburden himself?"

Dressed in a dark suit and open collared white shirt, with his hair tied back, Varley remained expressionless throughout proceedings as did John McGowan-Fazakerley, dressed in blue shirt, suit and tie.

The court heard how on the day of Preston's death, the pair dropped the baby off with Jamie Varley's parents to attend an appointment with a mortgage broker before Varley returned to Blackpool and John McGowan-Fazakerley travelled to his work place in Salford. The court was shown an image of Preston sitting on his grandma's knee, looking well.

Later that day a 35 second video was made by Jamie Varley, in which the toddler appears to be struggling for breath.

Mr Wright explained that when viewed by a Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine sometime later, he concluded Preston appeared to have been captured on it while recovering from an episode in which he had not been breathing.

Mr Wright said: "To his trained eye, Preston bore signs of respiratory failure."

He explained the child’s lips were a bluish hue and in addition his breathing was noticeably laboured.

Mr Wright added the recording has audio and Jamie Varley appeared completely silent during the entirety of it - at no stage appearing physically to go to the toddler's aid.

He said: "He did not seek any medical attention for Preston. He didn’t call anyone or seek any sort of assistance.

"The A&E Department was, as he knew, very close by, yet he did not seek in any way to alleviate this little boy’s obvious difficulties. You may wish to consider why that was, and what in fact had caused this little boy’s breathing difficulties that afternoon.

"Indeed, such was the level of Jamie Varley’s lack of concern for Preston's well-being at this time, that his attention seems not to have included Preston's condition at all.

"His attention appears to have returned to the calculator application on his phone and the possible sale of a Kayak by his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, to a prospective buyer.

"It is of note, we say, that notwithstanding his recording of Preston's breathing difficulties (and his previous history of hospital admissions) he didn’t even alert John McGowan-Fazakerley, to this event. He seems to have kept it to himself."

He added: "Jamie Varley had a phone. He had a car. He had neighbours. He had a hospital less than one mile away; yet at no stage prior to John McGowan-Fazakerley's return had he sought any help for Preston Davey."

The two men took Preston to hospital by car within minutes of John McGowan-Fazakerley returning home from work and the court was shown CCTV footage of the pair pulling up outside the hospital and frantically running towards the entrance before handing Preston's lifeless body over to a paramedic. Varley could be seen holding his head in his hands.

Mr Wright said: "Let me make this absolutely clear - we say this is all for show."

The court heard how prior to this, Varley gave an account that he had placed Preston in the bath in his chair and gone to change into pyjamas returning after four minutes to find Preston to be drowning.

Mr Wright said: "It is the prosecution case that during intervening period of time between the recording by Preston in an obvious state of respiratory distress and his being brought to Blackpool Victoria Hospital by his adoptive parents, Preston had been further sexually assaulted by Jamie Varley and smothered to death by him by the intentional obstruction of his upper airways.

The court heard desperate efforts were made to resuscitate Preston, but he was in cardiac arrest and his condition was sadly irreversible.

Mr Wright said Jamie Varley appeared to be inconsolable; refusing to accept the tot was beyond recovery and blaming himself for having left Preston, albeit briefly, alone unsupervised and in the bath.

But he added: "Some things however didn’t seem to add up. Preston Davey did not appear wet. His hair was dry."

He added that chest compressions did not result in any expulsion of water from Preston's airways and on examination there appeared to be no trauma to the lungs of the type you would ordinarily expect in a case of drowning.

The court heard how medical staff found internal and external bruising and injury to the toddlers anus.

Mr Wright said: "Jamie Varley maintained an account that purported to accept responsibility for the inadvertent exposure of Preston to harm by leaving him unattended in the bath and that it was “all my fault."

He added: "This account was, we say, is a cover up designed by Jamie Varley to deflect the authorities from what had really happened.

"The impression he gave was that the bath time incident resulting in them rushing Preston to Hospital occurred shortly before John McGowan-Fazakerley returned home, and that prior to that there had been no reason to suspect Preston was in need of medical attention."

However Mr Wright said it was the prosecution's case that Preston's laboured breathing; the state of his anus as seen on admission; the external bruising and what was found on autopsy as to his injuries both external and internal "told a very different tale to the one being so dramatically presented for public consumption by Jamie Varley at the hospital."

The court heard an autopsy revealed multiple injuries both externally and internally that were consistent with non-accidental infliction.

Mr Wright summarised: "We say that Jamie Varley is guilty of the murder of Preston Davey.

"In assaulting him as he did he intended to cause him really serious harm, from which he died.

"In deliberately occluding Preston's upper respiratory airways in this manner, death or really serious harm was, we say, a virtual certainty.

“It was something Jamie Varley must have realised when he intentionally did it.

"It was therefore a calculated act on his behalf the consequences of which he must have realised at the time were virtually certain to lead to Preston's death or really serious harm, yet he nevertheless persisted in this obviously dangerous act and in the event, killed him.

"Jamie Varley may have not wished for this outcome, but in doing as he did he intentionally caused Preston really serious harm from which, sadly he died.

"The prosecution says John McGowan-Fazakerley is guilty of allowing Preston's death."

He added: "We say John McGowan-Fazakerley was, or ought to have been aware of the risk of serious physical harm being caused to Preston by the unlawful act of Jamie Varley.

"Indeed, we say as a joint carer of Preston living in the same household he could hardly have been unaware of it."

As he drew his opening statement to a close, Mr Wright concluded: "Each of these defendants failed Preston - with what they did and what they failed to protect him from."

The trial continues.