A teacher confided in a colleague about experiencing “harmful thoughts” regarding the suffocation of a baby boy he had recently adopted, just weeks before the child was allegedly murdered.
Janet Gee recounted that Jamie Varley, aged 37, unexpectedly appeared at her home in late June 2023, visibly “distressed and agitated.”
The design and technology teacher shared his struggles with caring for his 12-month-old son, Preston Davey, whom he had adopted with his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32. Varley expressed difficulties with the baby not sleeping well at night.
“He confided in me about having harmful thoughts towards the baby, specifically mentioning possibilities of drowning and suffocation,” Gee stated.
Details presented to Preston Crown Court revealed that on July 27, 2023, Preston passed away, four months after being placed in the couple’s care. The court heard allegations that the child had been systematically sexually abused and smothered.
Gee, a colleague of Varley’s at South Shore Academy in Blackpool, mentioned that Varley quickly assured her he would “never act” on those troubling thoughts.
‘I believed him,’ Mrs Gee added. ‘I said it was quite natural for parents who have little children – sleep deprivation is a real thing and sometimes the mind wanders into a place where you don’t want it to be. I didn’t believe it was something he would want to carry out.’
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
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
Mrs Gee, who worked as part of the high school’s pastoral team, said she already knew the headteacher had been carrying out home visits to see Varley over concerns for his well-being and he reassured her he’d disclosed his worrying thoughts to the school leader.
Asked if she told anyone else about what Varley had told her, Mrs Gee said: ‘I didn’t do anything about it because I believed it was already being dealt with.’
However, after Preston died she went to the police.
Mrs Gee, who admitted she was ‘very close friends’ with Varley, broke down in the witness box as she recounted how she was on holiday when Preston died so didn’t find out for 10 days.
She said by then Varley had been arrested for neglect and when she telephoned him on her return to find out what had happened, the first thing he said to her was: ‘Jan, I didn’t do anything.’
Mrs Gee said that she and Varley had done their safeguarding training together and had been ‘safeguarding leads’ at the school for ten years.
She said later Varley confided in her that police had quizzed him about alleged indecent images and inappropriate videos found on his mobile phone, including one of Preston’s bottom, another he had shared with McGowan-Fazakerley of the baby’s genitals with the caption ‘that’s our boy,’ and another of himself and Preston both naked in the bath.
Some of these images were shown to the jury today, together with a video of Varley laughing as the baby boy stared at his adopted father’s genitals.
Mrs Gee said Varley tried to explain to her that a hospital doctor had asked him to send a picture of Preston’s bottom ‘for investigation.’
She also claimed Varley told her that extracts of his DNA, which were found on Preston on the day he died, must have been transferred because they had shared a towel.
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.
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
Mrs Gee, however, said Varley also gave her inconsistent accounts of what happened to cause the break – first telling her he had ‘accidentally dropped’ Preston, then later telling her his arm had got caught in the bars of his cot.
The court heard that, on the evening of July 27, 2023, 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 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 and Varley told officers 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, a sales rep, 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.
