WARNING: This article contains distressing details A couple are on trial accused of a harrowing series of sexual assaults and abuse against a toddler they were in the process of adopting in Blackpool, a court has heard
A couple allegedly subjected a toddler they were in the process of adopting to sleep deprivation and sexual assaults before he died after being in their care for just three months, a court was told.
Preston Davey had been placed with Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazackerley at their Blackpool home in April 2023 when he was nine months old. During the three months that followed, right up until Preston’s death on July 27 that year, the pair are alleged to have repeatedly sexually assaulted the infant and inflicted serious injuries said to have been caused by 37-year-old Varley sexually assaulting the toddler.
The couple stood trial at Preston Crown Court on Monday, April 27, facing a combined total of 29 charges. Varley, a former teacher, is accused of murdering Preston, along with 25 additional counts of sexually and physically abusing the child, reports Lancs Live.
McGowan-Fazackerley, 32, faces charges of causing or allowing the death of the child, sexual assault and four further offences relating to neglect and ill-treatment. Both men, of Chandlers Way, Grimsargh, deny all charges.
A jury comprising seven men and seven women was sworn in during the afternoon, before Peter Wright KC opened proceedings on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service. Mr Wright KC cautioned the jury from the start that the trial was expected to run for six weeks and would contain deeply upsetting details, images and footage. Some of that material, retrieved from Varley’s phone, was presented to jurors, including a sequence of three photographs depicting a sleeping Preston slumped over the bars of his cot.
The prosecutor stated that staining found within the cot had been analysed and was “consistent with the presence of fluid containing saliva, the microscopic characteristics of a sperm cell and a mixed DNA result that could have originated from cells from Preston and Mr McGowan-Fazackerley were found”.
The court was told that Preston had been born on June 16 in 2022. In April 2023, at nine months old, he was placed into the care of the defendants as they sought to formally adopt him.
Mr Wright KC said: “The defendants were living together as a couple at an address in Blackpool. They had been together as a couple for some considerable time. Less than four months later, at about 6.30pm on Thursday July 27 in 2023 Preston was brought to the accident and emergency department at Blackpool Victoria Hospital by these defendants.
“Preston was unconscious and he was in a state of cardiac arrest. His heart had stopped. By now he was aged just 13 months. Despite the best efforts of medical staff Preston was in terminal decline. His condition was irreversible and at 7.20pm that evening he was pronounced dead.
“A post mortem examination revealed the cause of his death to be, in the opinion of the pathologist, the result of acute upper airways obstruction. In the opinion of the forensic pathologist that obstruction which led to his death was as a result either of a smothering, most likely with a hand or soft fabric, or by the insertion of an object or objects into his mouth.
“Someone, with something, so compromised this little boy’s ability to breathe that he was smothered to death. This tragedy was not some unforeseen accident or natural phenomenon. The evidence gathered revealed a much more sinister pathology.”
The prosecutor detailed some of the injuries Preston suffered, which the Crown claims were inflicted by the accused.
“In his brief life [Preston] was routinely ill treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted,” the KC said. “At the time of Preston’s death he was found to have sustained around 40 traumatic injuries over the course of the time he had been in their care.
“He had a healing fracture to his left upper arm that was non-accidental.”
The jury heard that Varley stands accused of capturing multiple images of Preston “in a state of undress in which the focus is the genitalia of that little boy” including while he and Preston were bathing together. Varley is alleged to have transmitted some of these images and videos to McGowan-Fazackerley. Addressing the events of the day Preston died, 27 July 2023, Mr Wright KC stated: “These events took place in the defendant’s home when Jamie Varley was the only person at home.
“It was only later, when Preston’s condition became so extreme that it led to his collapse, that the defendant Jamie Varley together with his then recently-returned partner Mr McGowan-Fazackerley took that little boy 0.9 miles to the hospital. They didn’t live very far away. But it was all too late.”
Turning to McGowan-Fazackerley’s involvement on the day Preston lost his life, the prosecutor continued: “He was working in the Manchester area and it was only when he returned home they took that little boy to the hospital.
“But that doesn’t absolve him. He had joint responsibility for Preston’s care and his well-being. Mr McGowan-Fazackerley failed to take steps to protect Preston. The unlawful act that caused his death occurred in circumstances that he foresaw or ought to have foreseen. He must have known about it and we say he had, on one occasion, participated in sexual assault.”
‘No stranger to A&E’
The court was told that Preston “was no stranger to Blackpool Victoria Hospital”. The prosecutor explained: “After he was placed with [the defendants] Preston was admitted to Blackpool Victoria on three occasions in May, late June and early July with a variety of ailments including difficulty breathing, seizures, a nosebleed and a fracture to his elbow.
“Staff noticed facial bruising but it was explained by the defendants. On admission Preston appeared to recover quickly from any reported breathing difficulties or abnormality. Although physicians put it down to non-specific viral chest infections the tests conducted after death disclosed findings that were consistent with earlier episodes of respiratory obstruction.”
Mr Wright KC revealed that in one clip discovered on Varley’s phone, Preston was being spun on a playground ride “at such a force that his eyes were going in opposite directions”. The footage was subsequently set to music with Preston’s eyelids “spinning round and round which Mr Varley clearly thought was amusing and sent to a friend,” he added.
Jurors were also shown footage of Preston struggling to keep his eyes open while sitting upright, with blaring music repeatedly disturbing him.
The trial continues.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login