A schoolteacher described as a “serial manipulator. a serial liar” has been found guilty of sexually abusing and murdering a baby he and his partner had adopted.
Jamie Varley, 37, of Staining, Lancashire, had denied being responsible for the death of 13-month-old Preston Davey but after an eight-week trial was found guilty of the baby’s murder, as well as two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, grievous bodily harm. sexual assault of a child.
Varley was also found guilty of 13 counts of taking indecent photos or videos of a child, one count of distributing an indecent photo of a child. one count of making an indecent photo.
Varley, a head of year at a secondary school, had adopted Preston with his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, a financial sales manager, who was found guilty of allowing the death of a child, child cruelty. sexual assault. The baby. whose birth name was Elijah, died as a result of acute upper airways obstruction, caused by either smothering or an object or objects being inserted into his mouth.
His death came at the end of four months during which he was “ routinely ill-treated, sexually abused. physically assaulted ”, the prosecutor Peter Wright KC had told a trial at Preston crown court. The trial heard that Preston’s body had shown evidence of more than 40 separate injuries, which the pair had claimed he sustained from falling over. dropping toys on to his head.
Wright insisted during the trial that Preston had died while being assaulted by the men, who had begun the process to formerly adopt him four months prior,. that the story told by Varley to police that he had died due to drowning in the bath was merely a cover story created by the pair after Preston died in hospital.
The jury were shown images of the 13-month-old that the prosecution claimed were evidence that he had been sexually. physically abused, including a series of photos of the infant draped over the side of his cot.
Karen Tonge, of the Crown Prosecution Service, described the case as “one of the most shocking. horrific cases I have dealt with in my career” and said that Preston had been “abused with sickening ease” by both men.
“It is difficult to comprehend how the very people who should have loved him could inflict such sickening physical. sexual harm on an innocent child,” said Tonge. “No child should have to go through what Preston went through in the last four months of his short life. 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, the senior investigating officer, said Varley had shown himself to be a “serial manipulator. a serial liar” who had made Preston’s short life a “harrowing tale of misery and pain”.
Fallows said: “It is not often in this job that you encounter pure evil. Anybody who has followed this trial will no doubt understand why I place Jamie Varley. John McGowan-Fazakerley in that category.
“Almost from day one, they set about abusing Preston. making his short life a harrowing tale of misery and pain. It was this abuse that ultimately led to Preston’s death.
“For the first nine months of his life Preston was a happy. healthy child but by the end he was a broken shell. This was due to the sordid and wicked acts of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley.
“Throughout this trial we have tried to ensure the focus remained on baby Preston Davey, a little boy who was physically, sexually. psychologically abused by two individuals who were supposed to love and care for him. While I understand the focus in the media will go elsewhere. I would ask that Preston is not forgotten in your coverage.”
Both defendants will be sentenced on Thursday.
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