There was no outburst, no protest, no visible emotion when Jamie Varley learned he would spend the rest of his natural life in prison for the murder of the baby boy he had adopted only months earlier. In the dock at Preston Crown Court the 37-year-old former teacher, now wearing faded black jeans and a dark polo top instead of the formal clothing of earlier hearings, listened without reaction as the judge imposed a whole-life order.

His partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, was sentenced to 25 years for the same catalogue of physical and Sєxual abuse that claimed the life of 13-month-old Preston Davey. The child’s early months had been spent in the care of dedicated foster parents Sandra and Paul Cooper after his birth mother, Sarah Davey—herself jailed as a youngster for killing a 71-year-old—proved unable to keep him. At nine months Preston was placed with Varley, a rising staff member at South Shore Academy who had progressed from technician to head of year, and McGowan-Fazakerley, a northern sales manager. The couple had presented themselves during the pandemic-era adoption process as stable, committed and eager for parenthood. Varley told the court he had always longed to be “a daddy with a Jeep who lived on a farm” and that meeting his partner made the impossible seem possible.

Yet within days of Preston’s arrival on 3 April 2023 private messages painted a different picture: sleepless nights, projectile vomiting, and increasingly hostile descriptions of the baby as “ᴅᴇᴀᴅ meat,” “annoying” and constantly screaming. Images captured by Varley showed the infant in precarious positions inside his cot for minutes at a time, deliberately prevented from sleeping, and subjected to rough handling. Neighbours recalled excessive crying; a colleague later testified that Varley had admitted dark thoughts of harming the child. Three hospital attendances preceded the final emergency call on 27 July 2023, when Varley reported a supposed accident in the bath.

No supporting evidence was found. The postmortem revealed approximately forty trauma injuries, external and internal, consistent with forcible penetration and Sєxual abuse. Prosecutors argued that Varley had used the baby as a plaything for personal gratification and that the abuse led directly to murder—an account the jury accepted after an eight-week trial filled with distressing evidence. The case has raised wider concerns about the robustness of adoption ᴀssessments and post-placement monitoring across the United Kingdom, leaving professionals and the public to ask how a child who had already been rescued once could be placed in a home where systematic cruelty followed so swiftly. Varley’s whole-life sentence ensures he will never walk free; McGowan-Fazakerley’s 25-year term acknowledges his shared culpability in the destruction of an innocent life that had barely begun.

Source: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/inside-courtroom-preston-daveys-murderer-34146115