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Today, at Preston Crown Court in the UK, a gay couple were found guilty of a host of charges ranging from sexual assault to murder in relation to the death of Preston Davey, an infant boy.
Jamie Varley – a former teacher – was found guilty of murder, 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.
He was given a whole life sentence for his appalling, sickening crimes.
His live-in boyfriend, John McGowan-Fazakerley was found guilty of allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty, and one count of the sexual assault of a child. For those crimes he was sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Preston Davey went into that house as a healthy little boy; four months later he was dead. Of all the accounts of child sex abuse I have heard, the vileness of what was done to Preston cries out for justice in a way that, in my opinion, warrants the death penalty. Some crimes are unforgivable, and the punishments that attach should strike fear deep into the barren souls of those who do similar.
A friend of mine, herself the mother of an infant son, told me that she wished she hadn’t read a court report I wrote on the case in the earlier stages of the trial. She told me that the details of the abuses inflicted on little Preston made her want to “cry” and “scream”.
During the trial of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley the court heard that a post-mortem examination found 40 external and internal trauma injuries to the child’s body, consistent with “forcible penetration” and sexual abuse.
The Crown Prosecution Service said these injuries “painted a heartbreaking picture of Preston’s time in the care of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley.”
The post-mortem examination also found external and internal injuries including bruises to Preston’s forehead, throat, mouth, bladder, bottom and bleeding in the lungs.
Lancashire Police detective chief inspector Andy Fallows said Preston had been kept awake for “no other purpose than amusement”. He said Varley treated the child as “a plaything” and his property. He said that “Almost from day one, they set about abusing Preston and making his short life a harrowing tale of misery and pain…by the end he was a broken shell.”
Karen Tonge of the Crown Prosecution Service said “This has been one of the most shocking and horrific cases I have dealt with in my career…13-month-old Preston was abused with sickening ease.”
It is difficult to comprehend how the very people who should have loved him could inflict such awful physical and sexual harm on an innocent child.”
There was a video recovered from Varley’s phone of Preston in his cot, along with two toy teddy bears, four days before his death in July 2023. The video and images stretch over a period of three minutes and 12 seconds, with the child’s head and arms over the top horizontal bar of his cot and his neck resting on the bar. His body is apparently partially suspended, his legs in a “frog like” position and the child seemingly asleep or unconscious.
The little baby, whose tortured body finally gave in to the litany of abuses he suffered, died at 13 months old.
Varley originally claimed that Preston had drowned in the bath. But the court heard that the baby was dry when he arrived at hospital, and there was no evidence to support the story of drowning. Instead, medical evidence found that Preston died from acute upper airway obstruction, either by smothering or by an object or objects being inserted into his mouth. Internal bruising was also found in his mouth and throat.
The fact that Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were a gay couple is not irrelevant, because questions are now being asked about whether officials were reluctant to scrutinise them for fear of appearing homophobic.
The Sun has reported that authorities may have missed as many as eight chances to intervene before Preston died. Those warnings allegedly included an abandoned 999 call, a first hospital visit when Preston was unresponsive and had bruising to his forehead, a second hospital visit where more bruising was noticed, a visit by his social worker when he was said to appear pale and not himself, and a hospital visit for a fractured elbow.
There were other signs too. Preston’s former foster mother reportedly had a “gut feeling” something was wrong. Varley is said to have spoken of dark thoughts about drowning or suffocating the baby. A school headteacher later visited the home after concerns about Varley’s mental state. Still, Preston remained in that house.
The Spectator reported that Preston’s birth grandmother, Debbie Davey, suggested that fear of accusations of homophobia may have affected the judgment of those responsible for supervising his placement.
“Social services might have been hesitant to take action when they saw Preston because they may have been accused of being homophobic,” Mrs Davey said.
The Sun has also reported similar concerns from within social work. One social worker told the paper that when a couple appears respectable, desperate for a child, and has passed the official checks, there can be “an element of relying on your gut” in adoption cases.
The same social worker added that it is “never, ever easy” to confront parents if something feels wrong, and that when political correctness is added into the mix, inexperienced social workers may find it hard to confront same-sex parents for “fear of seeming homophobic”.
And now Sky News has put that same uncomfortable question to safeguarding consultant Joanna Nicolas.
Speaking to Sarah-Jane Mee on The UK Tonight, Ms Nicolas was asked whether professionals working in child safety can be reluctant to intervene in cases involving same-sex couples because they fear being seen as homophobic.
Her answer was significant. She said that in child safeguarding practice reviews, where something terrible has happened to a child and a same-sex couple is involved, it is not unusual to find that professionals were anxious about challenging the couple because of that fear. She said she would expect the author of Preston’s review to examine that question, “absolutely, without doubt”.
That is a remarkable thing for a safeguarding consultant to say on national television.
It does not prove that fear of appearing homophobic caused the failure in Preston’s case. Ms Nicolas herself urged a “note of caution”, saying that the public will not know the answers until the review is published.
But it does mean the question cannot be dismissed as bigotry or opportunism.
Oldham council has confirmed an independent Child Safeguarding Practice Review is already under way to examine how Preston’s safeguarding was handled, and we can’t know for certain why certain decisions were made until that concludes.
But what we can say, for certain, is that his child was tortured to death by two men who never should have been let near any child, nevermind pre-approved to adopt a helpless infant. Prison is too good for them.
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