A baby died after suffering serious sexual assaults in a ‘sinister’ campaign of abuse at the hands of a teacher who was in the process of adopting him, a court heard today.
Preston Davey was just 13 months-old when was ‘suffocated to death’ and had bruising inside his mouth, jurors were told.
He also had severe internal injuries, the prosecution said.
Secondary school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, is accused of murdering Preston, who died in hospital after being assaulted at the home in Blackpool, Lancashire, which he shared with partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32.
Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, told jurors at Preston Crown Court that Preston had suffered 40 injuries – most critically a blockage of his upper airway.
There were ‘linear bruises’ consistent with a slap and bruising to Preston’s forehead ‘consistent with gripping’, plus abrasions to his face, mouth and behind his ears, the court was told.
In what he called a ‘distressing case’, Mr Wright told a jury: ‘Someone, with something, so compromised this little boy’s ability to breathe that he was smothered to death’.
Preston had also been assaulted with ‘such force’ that he suffered ‘significant internal injuries’, the prosecutor said.
The court heard Preston had suffered previous injuries which led to him being admitted to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on three occasions, including breathing difficulties, seizures, nose bleeds and an injury later found to be fracture to an elbow.
Mr Wright said while staff ‘noticed facial bruises’… ‘it was explained sufficiently by the couple as to be discounted as having been deliberately caused’.
In reality, Preston – who had been placed with the couple four months before he died – was being ‘routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and assaulted’, it is alleged.
Mr Wright said there was a ‘sinister pathology’ to the abuse of Preston, who died at Victoria Hospital on July 27, 2023.
He had been brought to hospital by the defendants ‘unconscious and in a state of cardiac arrest’ at 6.30pm and was pronounced dead 48 minutes later ‘despite the best efforts of medical staff.
Varley was at home alone with Preston at the time of the final alleged assault but fellow prospective adoptive parent McGowan-Fazakerley ‘ought to have been aware of the risk’ of abuse and ‘failed to take such steps as could reasonably be expected to protect Preston Davey’, Mr Wright said.
Rather than seeking immediate medical help as Preston lay struggling to breathe, Varley made a video recording ‘while the boy was lying on a bed with physical and obvious signs of respiratory arrest’.
Mr Wright said of Preston: ‘He’d stopped breathing, he had blue lips.’
But the court heard Varley waited until his boyfriend returned from work in Manchester before seeking help.
Varley had previously made other indecent videos and taken indecent photographs of Preston, who was ‘routinely ill-treated’, the court heard.
Mr Wright described how one image was taken by Varley as a ‘memento’ of an earlier assault on the baby.
The prosecutor added the collection of photographs was ‘not the usual type of snaps taken by a doting parent’.
Meanwhile, sales rep McGowan-Fazakerley had participated with Varley in an earlier assault of Preston in his cot four days before his death, the court heard.
Forensic examination of the house found McGowan-Fazakerley’s DNA close by, jurors were told.
A three-second video was taken of a naked Preston by Varley on his iPhone, who sent it to his boyfriend with a comment about the infant’s anatomy, it was claimed.
The court was told of other incidents of neglect, including a 14-minute video of Preston ‘left unattended slithering around in a bath’, Mr Wright said.
The baby was also shown being ‘violently’ spun around on a children’s ‘teacup’ roundabout in a play area leaving him ‘disorientated’, the court heard.
Mr Wright said the incident was ‘an event that Jamie Varley clearly found so amusing it was later set to music’ – Kylie Minogue’s song Spinning Around – by Varley, ‘stored on his phone and shared’.
Preston was also videoed being subjected to sleep deprivation and loud noises and music, it was claimed.
Mr Wright added: ‘The warning signs were there for all to see that unaddressed, unchallenged or unaverted, were ever increasingly likely to lead to the infliction of serious physical harm to Preston Davey, particularly if he was left alone and in Jamie Varley’s company.’
The prosecutor also told how McGowan-Fazakerley was ‘clearly aware of the risk Jamie Varley posed to the physical and psychological wellbeing of Preston Davey, and of the serious risk of physical harm being caused to him by his partner; yet he did nothing to protect Preston from it’.
Mr Wright told jurors: ‘On the evidence you hear, you may conclude that Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley were in fact wholly unsuited to the role of adoptive parents.
‘Sadly, this fact only became so patently obvious when, for Preston Davey, it was too late.’
Varley denies murder, sexual assault, assault by penetration, inflicting GBH for breaking Preston’s elbow three weeks before his death, four counts of child cruelty, 14 counts of making 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.
