Private text messages sent by Blackpool teacher accused of murdering baby he wanted to adopt shown to a jury

Text messages to a colleague from a Blackpool teacher accused of the sexual abuse and murder of a baby he was trying to adopt show he was having “harmful thoughts” towards the youngster, a court heard.

The messages between Janet Gee said Jamie Varley, who she worked with at South Shore Academy, were shared with the jury at Preston Crown Court.

Varley, 37, of Chandlers Way, Grimsargh and formerly of Staining Road, Staining 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, also of Chandlers Way, Grimsargh and formerly of Staining Road, Staining 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 court heard Varley told Mrs Gee he was struggling to cope with looking after the baby once he had been placed with the couple ahead of a formal adoption.

Varley told police the child accidentally drowned in a bath, but this was inconsistent with the post mortem which discovered the child had suffered 40 injuries, a jury at Preston Crown Court heard.

Both men are also accused of sexual offences against the child. Mrs Gee said on one occasion Varley arrived at her house with the baby, very flustered and agitated with Preston having a blue plaster cast on his arm.

She told the jury: “He told me how he was having harmful thoughts towards the baby in terms of drowning or suffocation.

“He was still agitated at this point. He was very quick to say this was something he was not going to act upon. I believed him, I have children of my own and sometimes your thoughts go to dark places.”

Varley told her he had told the same to his employer and he was having welfare home visits arranged by the school.

“I did not do anything about it,” Mrs Gee said. “I believed it was all being dealt with.”

Mrs Gee said she worked with Varley at South Shore Academy, in Blackpool, after the defendant began work there as a design and technology technician.

He became a teacher of the subject at the school after teacher training between 2019 and 2021, and also took on a pastoral role as a designated safeguarding lead.

Preston was born on June 16, 2022 and immediately taken into care by Oldham Council, and placed with foster parents at five days old. After undergoing an assessment and familiarisation process in early 2023 Preston was adopted and began living with the defendants on April 1 at their home in Staining.

Varley took a year off school to look after the child, but struggled as a new parent with a baby who frequently woke during the night, the court heard. In the next four months before the baby’s death, he was allegedly routinely ill-treated, had indecent images and videos taken of him, sexually abused and physically assaulted, suffering 40 traumatic injuries.

In the months before his death, the child was taken to hospital three times, once with a fractured left elbow.

Mrs Gee said Varley told her he had been putting the baby down and dropped him by accident, causing the injury to his arm. But after Preston’s death, Mrs Gee said Varley gave a different explanation for the injury.

She said: “The inconsistency was around the cot, the first instance was he dropped him, the second was he had his arm out of the cot and hurt it. So, no consistency.”

On July 27 2023 the baby was rushed to hospital by the defendants, unconscious and in a state of cardiac arrest, and medics could not revive him.

Afterwards Varley told Mrs Gee he had put the baby in the bath while he had a shower then realised he did not have a towel.

“So he went out and when he came back in the baby had fallen out of the bath seat and was face down in the water,” Mrs Gee said. “When I made the phone call Jamie said to me, ‘Jan, I promise you, I didn’t do anything.

“It was as soon as I made contact, he said, ‘Jan, I promise you, I didn’t do anything’ and went on to give an account of that day.”

But at Blackpool Victoria Infirmary, the child was found to be dry, had dry hair and did not appear to have swallowed any water, the court heard.

A Home Office post-mortem examination found multiple non-accidental, internal and external injuries.

There were bruises and grazes to his head, face and mouth, upper limbs, chest, back and left thigh.

Preston also had injuries to his mouth, throat and bottom.

There was no evidence to support drowning, the court heard, and a pathologist gave the cause of death as acute upper airways obstruction by either smothering or an object or objects inserted into his mouth.

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.

The trial continues.