A teacher accused of sexually abusing and murdering a baby boy he was trying to adopt described him as ‘dead meat’ and joked about killing him, a court has heard.
Jamie Varley, 37, made the comments in text messages to friends and relatives days after Preston Davey, then nine months, was placed in his care.
Varley and his boyfriend, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, had successfully applied to adopt the tot, who was taken from his biological mother soon after birth.
He died aged 13 months, on July 27, 2023, just four months after being placed in their care.
In one text, sent to his sister, who was described as a nanny and baby sleep trainer, Varley admitted the couple were struggling and wrote: ‘He’s dead meat.
‘He didn’t sleep last night after 11.30pm. Up every 1.5hours.’
Four days later, he sent a video of Preston in his baby walker to his mother, Karen Graham, who replied: ‘Clever boyxxx.’
Varley quipped in response: ‘This was before he was murdered and put to bed.’
Preston Davey died after suffering abuse and was found to have 40 injuries, a jury was told
Former secondary school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, denies a total of 25 charges
Varley’s partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, has pleaded not guilty to five charges
Preston Crown Court heard that Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley, a sales rep, passed ‘robust’ vetting procedures to adopt Preston, who was in the care of Oldham Council, before the infant was formally placed with them on April 3, 2023.
However, the couple immediately struggled with looking after the little boy, who had a milk allergy and was described by his foster carer, Sandra Cooper, as one of the ‘worst sleepers’ she had looked after in almost 25 years.
After the boy’s first overnight stay at the couple’s home, in Blackpool, Lancashire, Varley sent a message to his friend, which said: ‘After an hour of him refusing his milk and dummy I wanted to put him in the field with the cows but he’s woken up a ray of sunshine and is as beautiful as ever.’
The following day Varley complained to another colleague that they were frustrated that Preston was not in a sleep routine because he had been ‘spoilt’ by Mrs Cooper, who ‘smothered him’ and ‘picked him up at every cry’.
In other texts Varley, who had taken time off his teaching job to take care of Preston, described the infant as ‘annoying,’ ‘whiny’ and ‘crying all day and night’.
‘Love him to bits but he’s killing us,’ Varley wrote.
‘He cries when you pick him up, can only put him down for a few minutes, he cries all night. He’s awake every 1.5 to 2 hours…if we leave the room he screams.’
The jury was also shown text messages hinting at tension in the couple’s own relationship just a few days after Preston came to live with them.
In one, McGowan-Fazakerley told Varley: ‘I can’t keep trying any more. I am not going to be physical with you anymore, you’re breaking my heart.’
Varley replied: ‘You will end up going elsewhere, so we might as well split up.’
A court sketch of Jamie Varley (left) and his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley (right)
Family picture of tragic Preston Davey, who died in July 2023 aged 13 months
Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, said Preston was a ‘happy and healthy’ child when he was placed with the defendants but over the course of four months he was ‘routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted’.
The infant was taken to hospital by the pair on three separate occasions before he died, including once with a fractured arm.
But each time the couple explained away suspicious bruises to doctors, who failed to raise any safeguarding concerns.
On the evening of July 27, 2023, however, McGowan-Fazakerley came home from work to find Varley trying to resuscitate Preston and ‘panicking’, the jury was told.
They drove the baby, who was in cardiac arrest, to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, but he could not be saved.
A post-mortem found the tot had suffered 40 internal and external injuries – including severe bruising to the back of his throat. A pathologist concluded he had been smothered and had died of an ‘acute upper airway obstruction.’
Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were arrested later that day on suspicion of neglect. Varley claimed he had been bathing Preston when he nipped away for a short time and returned to find him drowning.
But Mr Wright said the pathology evidence did not support that version of events and it was the prosecution case that, earlier that day, Preston had been subjected to two serious sexual assaults by Varley which caused his death.
Varley denies murder, sexual assault, assault by penetration, inflicting GBH, four counts of child cruelty, 14 counts of making and taking indecent images of a child, and one charge of distributing an indecent image of a child.
McGowan-Fazakerley denies causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of child cruelty.
The pair face two further joint charges of sexual assault and child cruelty.
The trial, expected to last six to eight weeks, continues.
