Jamie Varley has been handed a whole-life order for the murder and sexual abuse of his adopted 13-month-old son, Preston Davey, after a judge said he will never be eligible for parole. On Thursday, Mr Justice Turner also jailed John McGowan-Fazakerley for 25 years over the same case.
The sentence brings finality to an eight-week trial that laid bare how Preston died in July 2023 at the hands of Varley. The 37-year-old was found guilty of murder, sexual assault and other child sex offences, while McGowan-Fazakerley was convicted of allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty and one count of sexual assault of a child. Police described the pair as “pure evil”.
Preston had been adopted by Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley in 2023, after being placed with them at nine months old. Before that, he had been taken from his biological mother, Sarah Davey, five days after birth and went to foster parents. The case has now become one of the starkest child abuse prosecutions in recent memory, not only because of the sentence, but because of what the court heard happened behind the front door of the couple’s home in Staining, near Blackpool.
Varley was said to have subjected the child to physical, sexual and emotional abuse over the final four months of his life. He told police Preston had accidentally drowned in a bath, saying he had left him there for a couple of minutes and returned to find him submerged. But there was no medical evidence for that account. A post-mortem found Preston had suffered 40 injuries, his hair was dry, he had a nappy in place and he did not appear to have swallowed water. A pathologist gave the cause of death as acute upper airways obstruction, caused by smothering or by an object or objects being inserted into his mouth.
The evidence also included disturbing images and videos found on Varley’s phone during a long police investigation, which were used to show that the abuse was physical, psychological and sexual. Preston was taken three times to hospital by Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley, once with a broken arm, but each time he was brought back home in their care. No alarms were raised and the explanations they gave for his injuries were believed.
That is the part now facing scrutiny. A child safeguarding practice review launched by Oldham council was paused while the criminal proceedings ran and has now resumed. It will examine how Preston’s welfare was handled and whether the agencies responsible for his care missed warning signs in the weeks before his death. Preston was seen by social workers, doctors and nurses during that period, and the question is no longer whether he was in danger. It is how many people saw it and still let him go back.
Debbie Davey said she had wanted to care for Preston but was unable to do so because she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Her loss sits behind every part of this case. The court has now answered the criminal question with a sentence that will keep Varley in prison for the rest of his life. What remains is whether the review can explain why so many adults around Preston did not stop the abuse before it turned fatal.
