AFTER a six-seven week trial of harrowing evidence gay dads Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley have been found guilty of all charges in connection with the murder of baby Preston Davey. After almost three days of deliberations the jury returned unanimous verdicts.
Preston was placed with these men and 115 days later he was dead. Preston was murdered on the July 27, 2023, by Jamie Varley after a campaign of evil abuse.
The Crown proved the case that Preston was systematically physically, emotionally and sexually abused to an extent that something was put in his mouth to stop his breathing.
Varley 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.
Mr Justice Turner expressed his personal gratitude to the jury. He unsurprisingly discharged all of them from jury duty for the rest of their lives. This was the second jury that sat through weeks of horrific evidence as the Crown painstakingly put together a case of brutal emotional, physical and sexual abuse of Preston, the first having been discharged after a week.
They saw photos deemed indecent of the baby, evidence of a bite mark, a broken arm amounting to grievous bodily harm and two videos of the baby gasping for breath after being sexually abused. One video was of Preston being kept awake in a sadistic way by Varley and another of him being spun around in a spinning cup until his eyes rolled around in his head.
A post-mortem examination found 40 external and internal trauma injuries to the child’s body, consistent with ‘forcible penetration’ and sexual abuse. It also found external and internal injuries including bruises to Preston’s forehead, throat, mouth, bladder, bottom and bleeding in the lungs.
There was a video recovered from Varley’s phone of Preston in his cot, with two teddy bears, four days before his death. The video and images stretch over a period of three minutes and 12 seconds, with the child’s head and arms over the top horizontal bar of his cot and his neck resting on the bar. His body is apparently partially suspended, his legs in a ‘frog like’ position and the child seemingly asleep or unconscious.
‘This is very unsafe and in my view dangerous that’s going to inhibit your ability to breathe,’ pathologist Dr Alison Armour said.
In one still photograph, Preston’s head is in a slightly different position with fluid coming from his mouth.
The Crown later put it to McGowan-Fazakerley in cross-examination that the fluid was his semen. He denied this.
Armour said: ‘Preston’s tongue is protruding, it’s blue and also his lips appear blue, consistent with a lack of oxygen in the blood.’
Prosecutor Peter Wright KC asked: ‘In terms of a child in that position for that length of time, how safe or otherwise is such a position?’
Armour said: ‘This is a very prolonged period of time for a child to be in such an unsafe position.’
There was DNA from McGowan-Fazakerley found on the inside of Preston’s cot, although the scientific evidence was agreed that it could have been deposited there by innocent means. Preston also had a bruise to the back of his throat which Dr Armour described as ‘most unusual’ and something she had never seen before. Preston also had a sore bottom later that day.
Four days later Preston was murdered by Varley who did something to stop his breathing.
It was the Crown’s case that Preston was assaulted by Varley one final time and in such a way that his upper airways were obstructed and he stopped breathing.
In a video recovered on Varley’s phone, Preston is shown on the bed struggling to breathe and the evidence was that Varley then went on his phone to check about a kayak sale and to open another app.
There were a number of gaps on the phone usage during this time.
During cross-examination the prosecutor asked Varley: ‘What were you really doing at that time?’
The jury concluded that Varley must have sexually abused Preston that day in such a way that he stopped breathing and died.
Serious questions must be asked now of social services about this placement, social workers who missed the abuse and the hospital who missed the physical injuries despite Preston being admitted to hospital three times before he was murdered.
During his cross-examination the prosecutor Peter Wright KC, when asking one of the defendants why they had abandoned Preston in a bath, pointed out that babies that age are totally dependent on their care-givers. ‘They are at your mercy,’ he said.
Varley showed Preston no mercy in the four months that poor child lived with this pair.
May prison justice be swift.
Preston Davey, June 16, 2022 – July 27, 2023.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let Your perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.
Amen.
