2022
June 16
At 7.03pm, Preston Davey is born at Wythenshawe Hospital in south Manchester to Sarah Davey. He arrives four weeks premature and weighs 5lb 7oz.
June 21
Five days later, Oldham Council secures an interim care order and places him in emergency care with foster parents Sandra and Paul Cooper. He remains with them for the first nine months of his life.
2023
January 6
Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley are approved by Adoption Now, a company providing services to local councils. The company says Preston needs: ‘Love, affection, safety and stability.’
February 13
They meet Preston for the first time during a ‘bumped into’ meeting with Mr and Mrs Cooper and social workers at a pub in Aston-under-Lyne, Manchester.
March 23
Introductory meetings begin proper, first at Mr and Mrs Cooper’s home, then later at Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley’s house, in Staining Road, Blackpool.
March 31
Preston spends his first night at the men’s home and is formally placed under their care.
April 6
Varley texts his sister, a baby sleep trainer, saying: ‘He’s dead meat today. Didn’t sleep last night after 11.30pm. Up every one and a half hours.’
April 23-25
Varley takes several videos of himself naked in the bath with Preston, some for over an hour, and other pictures of Preston with his genitals exposed. The prosecution said these showed he had a sexual interest in the baby.
May 11
McGowan-Fazakerley abandons a 999 call then calls 111 to report Preston has ‘breathing problems.’ A call back from a doctor goes unanswered.
May 12
Preston is visited at home by a health visitor and appears well.
May 25
At 11.10am Preston is rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, floppy and unresponsive. Varley reports he has had a nosebleed and the infant has a suspected seizure in A&E.
Nursing staff notice two bruises on his head. A medical report states he has `unexplained injuries, inconsistent with a version of events given.’
Hospital safeguarding are informed and social services and Lancashire Police called.
Following discussions with medical staff the bruises are put down to a baby learning to crawl and are not regarded as suspicious. He is discharged two days later.
June 12
Varley takes a photo of Preston naked and sends it to McGowan-Fazakerley with a crude comment about his private parts.
Another picture shows bruising on the child’s bottom – consistent with a human bite mark.
June 15
The night before Preston’s first birthday.
Varley is angry and frustrated because McGowan-Fazakerley is delayed home from a work trip.
At 9.07pm Varley takes a video showing Preston tired and falling asleep while music from the film Moana plays loudly in the background.
As he nods off Varley wakes him by shouting ‘Boo’.
He later takes another video of Preston having an apparent seizure, which the prosecution say is the aftermath of a sexual assault.
June 30
At 8.25pm, Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley take Preston to Blackpool Victoria Hospital A&E Department, saying he has a rash, diarrhoea, vomiting and high temperature.
Nurses notice bruising to Preston’s head, but staff are shown a home video of the child pulling a toy box onto himself, by way of explanation.
Varley comments: ‘You lot are going to think we have been abusing him or something.’
It is later discovered the toy box video was filmed 12 days earlier. Preston is discharged the following day.
July 4
Social worker Amy Shepherdson visits and finds Preston is not himself and looks ‘pale’.
She notes: ‘He tried to smile several times but then this changed to a very sad face and a little cry.’
July 6
At 10.36am Varley takes Preston to hospital for third time with an injury to his left arm, which he says Preston sustained as he lay him in his cot the previous evening.
After X-ray, a cast is applied for a fractured elbow.
The child’s social worker, Amy Shepherdson, who had been in contact with the hospital, texts Varley to say: `Just to reassure you they said they had absolutely no concerns. U absolutely did the right thing.’
July 7
Preston is visited at home by Helen Magee, an independent reviewer from Oldham social services.
In her report of the visit, apparently addressed to the baby, she writes:
‘I did watch your [Preston’s] responses to your daddies quite carefully as I’m aware that you had a few hospital admissions of late and this made me ponder a little bit as to whether there was a problem I could see.
‘I decided there wasn’t.’
The same week Varley tells a work colleague he is struggling mentally and having ‘dark thoughts’ about drowning or suffocating Preston.
July 13
Rebecca Warhurst, headteacher of South Shore Academy, in Blackpool, where Varley worked, pays him a welfare visit because of concerns over his mental state.
He reassures her he is ok and she leaves with no concerns.
July 23
Four days before Preston’s death, Varley takes seven photos of Preston, stretching over a period of three minutes, 12 seconds.
The child, asleep or unconscious, has his head and arms over the top horizontal bar of his cot and his neck resting on it, his body partially suspended and his legs in a `frog like’ position.
His tongue is protruding and his lips appear blue.
Later, Varley also takes a picture of Preston’s ‘abnormal’ bottom.
July 27
At 4.45pm, Varley records a 35-second video on his phone of Preston in ‘extreme respiratory distress’, gasping and in need of immediate resuscitation.
At 6.30pm Preston is rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital in a critical condition and Varley reports he found him submerged in the bath.
A team of paramedics, nurses and doctors attempt to resuscitate for 50 minutes, but Preston is pronounced dead at 7.18pm.
July 31
A Home Office post-mortem examination concludes Preston’s cause of death is due to acute upper airway obstruction and rules out drowning.
It also finds around 40 external and internal injuries including bruises to Preston’s forehead, throat, mouth, bladder, bottom and bleeding in his lungs.
Some of the injuries are regarded as clinical signs of sexual abuse.
2025
June 11/12
Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley are arrested and charged in connection with Preston’s death.
2026
April 20
Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley go on trial denying all offences.
