Teacher guilty of sexual abuse and murder of 13-month-old adopted baby boy
A high school teacher has been found guilty of the murder of an adopted 13-month-old boy after months of sexual abuse.
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High school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, was found guilty at Preston Crown Court following an eight-week trial.
His partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, has been convicted of allowing the death of the child, two counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.
Preston had been taken from his mother, Sarah Davey, now 42, by an emergency care order by Oldham Council.
Ms Davey, aged 14 at the time, had been jailed for the “unspeakably wicked” murder of a frail pensioner in 1998 and in and out of prison since then.
Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were approved for adoption and at nine months old Preston began living at their home in Blackpool, Lancs in April 2023.
Read more: Mother who murdered her 19-day-old baby daughter jailed for at least 19 years
But in the just under four months he was in their care, he was routinely ill-treated, had indecent images and videos taken of him, sexually abused and physically assaulted, suffering 40 traumatic injuries, the defendant’s trial at Preston Crown Court has heard.
Following an eight-week trial a jury spent around 14 hours considering verdicts before it returned to court to deliver verdicts.
Varley of was found guilty of murder, 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 was found guilty of allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.
Varley stood in the dock and put his hands to his face in shock as the guilty verdicts were read, before collapsing to his knees, wretching and vomiting.
His co-accused made no reaction, while McGowan-Fazakerley’s father shook his head.
Preston’s mother and grandmother burst into tears, sobbing throughout as the 29 guilty verdicts were returned.
Both defendants will not be sentenced today and Mr Justice Turner said he will pass sentence on Thursday.
A child safeguarding practice review, paused during the criminal proceedings, will be re-launched by Oldham Council following the guilty verdicts.
Detectives recovered evidence that Varley had confessed to a fellow teacher about having “dark thoughts” of suffocating or drowning Preston.
He had also sent a text to his sister saying the child was “dead meat” after a sleepless night.
Neighbours told the jury they wondered why they heard the baby crying so much.Most damning of all were grim indecent photos and videos of the abuse of Preston, some of which “cannot be unseen”, the trial heard.
The photos and videos ranged from examples of Varley “jump scaring” the clearly exhausted and sleepy child to wake him up to much more potentially lethal examples.Police recovered a series of photos of Preston taken four days before his death, over a period of three minutes 12 seconds, at the time of a sexual assault.
Preston, is photographed along with his favourite toy teddies, suspended over the top horizontal bar of his cot, his neck resting on the bar and his legs in a “frog like” position, seemingly asleep or unconscious.
Fluid dribbles from his mouth, his tongue protruding and his lips blue from lack of oxygen.
The images are too graphic to be released by police.
Four days later, 90 minutes before he is rushed to hospital, Varley recorded another video, in between using Snapchat and checking emails, of Preston in extreme distress, hardly breathing and taking “agonal breaths”.
DCI Andy Fallows, from Lancashire Police's Major Investigation Team, 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 and John McGowan-Fazakerley in that category.
“Almost from day one, they set about abusing Preston and 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 and 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."
Karen Tonge, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), described the case as "one of the most shocking and horrific" she has dealt with in her career.
"Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley had a responsibility to care for and protect baby Preston. "They violated that responsibility and 13-month-old Preston was abused with sickening ease."She added: "It is difficult to comprehend how the very people who should have loved him could inflict such sickening physical and sexual harm on an innocent child.
"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.”