Bouncing up and down excitedly, this is 10-month-old Preston Davey enjoying a nursery rhyme on television just days after being adopted by a teacher who allegedly went on to sexually abuse and murder him.
In the video, filmed by accused Jamie Varley, 37, the baby boy coos and giggles as characters on the programme sing alternative lyrics, ‘the daddy’s on the bus love you very much’ to the melody of the traditional ‘Wheels on the Bus’ children’s song.
The 28-second clip was sent by Varley to his mother, Karen Graham, on April 10 – a week after Preston went to live with he and his boyfriend, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32.
It was released by police after being shown to the jury on the fourth day of the couple’s trial.
Preston Crown Court has been told that Preston died on July 27, 2023, four months after being placed in their care. He had allegedly been systematically sexually abused and smothered.
Today jurors were told that arguments, raised voices and an ‘unusual amount’ of ‘high-pitched and distressed’ crying was heard by neighbours who lived next door to the couple, in Blackpool, Lancashire, in the weeks before his death.
Jasmine Nuttall said the walls of their semi-detached properties were ‘thin’ and, soon after Preston arrived, she began to hear the tot crying all the time.
Ms Nuttall, who knew Preston as Elijah – the name Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley had given him – said the couple were ‘friendly’ and ‘pleasant’ and she had ‘no concerns’ about them becoming parents.
However, after the tot’s death she told police she had ‘wondered’ why the baby boy cried ‘so much.’
Preston Davey pictured by his adopted father, Jamie Varley, 37, the morning after his first sleep over at his new adopted ‘daddies’ home. Varley is accused of sexually abusing and murdering Preston
The tot was seen bouncing to ‘Wheels on the Bus’ just days after he was adopted
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
Text messages recovered by the police that were shown to the court revealed tensions in Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley’s relationship after Preston came to live with them
‘Elijah would cry a lot,’ she said. ‘To me and my family it was an unusual amount of crying.
‘I would often think to myself, ‘Why is the baby crying so much.’ It got to the point when John came and knocked on the door and apologised for Elijah’s crying.’
Her father, Michael, 51, who also lived at the property, said the crying was ‘high-pitched and ‘seemed distressed’.
‘A one-year-old shouldn’t cry as much as that,’ he said.
Mr Nuttall described Varley as being the ‘more confident’ of the two men and ‘full of himself.’ He said he heard Varley raise his voice to his partner but never the other way round.
However, he said he did not say anything to the couple because he did not want be an ‘interfering neighbour.’
Ms Nuttall said that, soon after Preston moved in, she overheard Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley ‘fussing’ over the infant and trying to comfort him to get him to settle.
But later, in May, she said she heard ‘raised voices’ coming from next door.
‘I remember hearing Elijah crying and John raised his voice and said words to the effect of, ‘Stop it now,’ she said.
‘I could tell he was frustrated by the tone of his voice. I remember thinking that’s a bit short in comparison to how I’d heard them speak to Elijah (before).’
Ms Nuttall said she sometimes heard the men arguing ‘like a normal couple’ but on one occasion the row was more serious.
Preston Davey died after suffering abuse and was found to have 40 injuries, a jury was told
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
Janet Gee, a former colleague and friend of Jamie Varley. He told her he was ‘not in the best of places’ and complained that the hospital had contacted police over Preston’s bruises
‘They were saying to each other, ‘don’t talk to me like that,’ and ‘don’t raise your voice to me,’ she said.
The court has heard that there were tensions in the couple’s relationship within days of Preston being placed in their care.
Varley, who worked as a textiles teacher, had taken a year off to care for Preston, while McGowan-Fazakerley returned to his sales job.
But Preston was a poor sleeper, who often woke ten times in the night, and Varley told friends he was struggling with sleep deprivation and looking after him alone.
On May 15, Varley, described as ‘dramatic’ and the ‘boss’ of the relationship, sent a text message to McGowan-Fazakerley, pleading with his boyfriend: ‘Can you PLEASE TRY to get home for your son, I am struggling and it’s not good here.’
In another message a month later, on the eve of Preston’s first birthday, Varley told McGowan-Fazakerley to ‘f*** off’ after he told him his BA flight home to Heathrow had been delayed. He also sent him a link to ‘post-partum depression in adoptive parents.’
Jurors were also told about the first of Preston’s three visits to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, when a ‘panicked’ Varley rushed him to A&E, just after 11am on May 25, around two months before his alleged murder.
Zoe Hellowell, a paediatric sister, said: ‘Jamie had hold of Preston, he was frantic and held him out to me and said he is not breathing.’
She said the child was unresponsive and floppy and she also noticed two bruises on either side of his forehead.
Zoomed-in pictures of the bruising, recovered from images taken of Preston on the couple’s mobile phones around the same time, were also shown to the court.
Another nurse, Holly Edwards, referred Preston to hospital safeguarding, which was passed on to Lancashire Police.
Dr Siaw Sii Cheng said he remembered bruises on the child’s forehead but he was told Preston was learning to walk and this was ‘not unusual.’
He said Varley was ‘upset and crying’ and was being comforted by McGowan-Fazakerley.
Another medic, Dr Ghada Tahraoui, said in a statement that social workers had been asked to attend the hospital but following discussions with safeguarding staff there did not appear to be any concerns and the behaviour of the parents had been appropriate.
Two months later he was informed Preston had died.
He added: ‘Preston had made an impression on a lot of us because he was so sweet and bubbly.’
Jurors were then shown text messages Varley sent soon afterwards to his co-worker and friend Janet Gee.
He told her he was ‘not in the best of places’ and complained that the hospital had contacted police over Preston’s bruises but said their social worker had ‘put them straight’.
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’.
On the evening of July 27, 2023, the court heard that McGowan-Fazakerley came home from work to find Varley trying to resuscitate Preston and ‘panicking.’
They drove the baby, who was in cardiac arrest, to 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.
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.
