A teacher accused of sexually abusing and murdering a baby boy he was adopting wailed ‘hysterically’ for his own mother and cried that he was ‘going to hell’ after being told he had died, a court heard today.
Jamie Varley, 37, collapsed to the floor and pleaded with hospital doctors to ‘kill me’ after being told 13-month-old Preston Davey was not going to survive.
He also initially refused to go to the tot’s bedside to comfort him as doctors stopped CPR and pronounced him dead, around 7.20pm, on July 27, 2023.
Several clips of video footage, from the body-worn cameras of police officers, were played to the jury at Preston Crown Court today.
Varley, a secondary school textiles teacher and head of year, and his boyfriend, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, are on trial accused of cruelty and abusing the tot, who had been placed in their care four months earlier.
In one clip, taken more than three and a half hours after Preston died, in the hospital’s bereavement room, Varley could be seen talking to the deceased child, who he was cradling in his arms.
He is heard saying: ‘I probably won’t see you again, I’m definitely going to hell.’
Varley, who was wearing a distinctive red Jurassic Park T-shirt and tartan pyjama bottoms, later comments on the baby’s ‘thick lashes and beautiful eyes’.
Jamie Varley (pictured at Blackpool Victoria Hospital) after being told his adopted son, Preston Davey, could not be saved. He collapsed to the floor and said: ‘It’s my fault’
Varley, who arrived at the hospital barefoot, was later seen pacing around outside and refusing to believe Preston had gone
Varley, 37, is accused of sexually assaulting Preston twice on the day of his death, on July 27, 2023
Varley and his boyfriend, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, pictured outside the hospital minutes after Preston was pronounced dead. They deny abusing and harming the tot
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
As his co-accused tries to console him, Varley says: ‘They’ll be whisking me away for neglect.’
Earlier, the court was shown CCTV of the couple running barefoot into Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s A&E department, at around 6.20pm, with the limp baby boy, who was wearing just a nappy.
Medics spent 50 minutes unsuccessfully trying to revive Preston, who had no heartbeat and was not breathing, but eventually they realised their attempts were futile and they had to let him go.
Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were both invited to be with the infant at the end, but in clips shown to the court, Varley could be seen refusing to accept what was happening.
He collapses to the floor of the hospital corridor and can be heard saying; ‘I can’t, no, I have done this, it’s my fault, no, no, no, no, no.’
Varley, described as being ‘loud’ and ‘dramatic,’ later wails for his mother, slaps himself and pleads with the doctors: ‘Do not give up on him…this is not happening.’
When a nurse tries to coax him to be at Preston’s bedside by saying ‘your son needs you,’ Varley replies: ‘He doesn’t need me, it’s my fault…please get my mum…this is not happening…please kill me, please kill me.’
Later, after Preston has been declared dead, an agitated Varley can be seen pacing around and lying on the tarmac outside the hospital entrance, repeating that it was his fault because he left the infant unattended in the bath.
Footage of the moment they arrived at the hospital started being shown to the court yesterday
Preston was placed into foster care aged five days. He died aged 13 months
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
He says: ‘He’s not gone…I’m going to go back in there and he will be smiling and laughing…if he’s dead I can’t live with this…he’s got his life ahead of him.
‘I shouldn’t have left him, I’m a teacher, I’m a head of year, I’m child protection trained, you don’t leave them in the bath.’
The jury has been told that Varley claimed Preston had fallen off his bath seat when he nipped away to change into his pyjamas and he returned a few minutes later to find him face down in the bath.
But the prosecution say that a post-mortem did not match this version of events and a pathologist had concluded that Preston had been smothered.
The court heard that Preston had 40 injuries, including ones consistent with being sexually abused, and died of an ‘acute upper airway obstruction’ – not drowning.
Dr Mohammed Ahmed also gave evidence that he inspected Preston’s body after his death and noted 10 bruises, including two on his right thigh, four on his left thigh, two on his forehead and two on his back, near his spine.
Sister Taghread Jaidy also said she too noticed the bruises. She described those on Preston’s head as ‘old’ and the marks on his left thigh as being like a ‘handprint.’
She said Varley was ‘hesitant’ about being with Preston in his final moments, but McGowan-Fazakerley, who was visibly upset and crying, held his hand.
Referring to Varley, she added: ‘He was very loud. He was hysterical, he wasn’t complying with what we were trying to explain to him, he wasn’t listening.’
After the resuscitation was stopped, Sister Jaidy said she had to physically stop Varley from continuing the CPR.
‘I recall I put my hand on his shoulder and asked him to stop doing chest compressions on Preston,’ she added.
Preston was immediately taken into care by Oldham Council after his birth, on June 16, 2022, and placed with foster parents at five days old.
After undergoing an assessment and familiarisation process in early 2023, he was adopted and began living with the defendants on April 1 at their Blackpool home.
Varley denies murder, manslaughter, 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 denies allowing the death of a child, three counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.
The trial, expected to last six to eight weeks, continues.
