Jamie Varley has been jailed for life and told he will spend the rest of his days in prison for sexually abusing and murdering Preston Davey. Mr Justice Turner imposed a whole-life order on Thursday, meaning Varley will never be eligible for parole.
The sentence is the harshest available and reflects the cruelty of a case that shocked even in the dry language of court. John McGowan-Fazakerley was also jailed, for 25 years, after the pair were found responsible for the abuse and death of the 13-month-old child.
Preston was placed with Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley when he was nine months old and spent the months before his death in their home in Staining near Blackpool. Peter Wright KC told the court that the baby was “routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted”, and evidence showed he suffered 40 traumatic injuries before he died.
The final hours were just as grim. On 27 July 2023, Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley took Preston to hospital unresponsive, and medics worked for 50 minutes in vain to save him. A pathologist later said the cause of death was acute upper airways obstruction, caused either by smothering or by an object or objects being inserted into the baby’s mouth.
What makes the case harder to absorb is how many adults saw Preston before that point. He was seen by social workers, doctors and nurses in the final weeks of his life, and he was taken to hospital three times by Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley, once with a broken arm. No alarms were raised, and the explanations for his injuries were believed.
Police later recovered disturbing images and videos from Varley’s phone that were used as evidence of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. That material, along with the injuries and the medical evidence, turned a hidden pattern of harm into a case that left little room for doubt.
Oldham council has resumed a child safeguarding practice review into how agencies handled Preston’s welfare after the criminal proceedings were paused. The review is expected to examine the involvement of the services responsible for him before his death, including why warnings were missed and why the explanations around his injuries were accepted. For Debbie Davey, who said she wanted to care for Preston but could not because she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, the sentence closes one chapter while the unanswered question remains the same: how did so many chances to protect him pass without anyone stopping the abuse?
