06/15/2026
THEY APPLIED TO ADOPT HIM. FOUR MONTHS LATER, 13-MONTH-OLD PRESTON DAVEY WAS BROUGHT TO HOSPITAL IN CARDIAC ARREST WITH 40 SEPARATE INJURIES ON HIS TINY BODY.
Preston Davey — also known by those who loved him as Elijah — was just 13 months old when he was placed into the care of Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley in March 2023, as part of an adoption process the couple had initiated. He was a baby boy with his whole life ahead of him. He would be d**d within four months.
On the evening of July 27, 2023, Lancashire Police were called to Blackpool Victoria Hospital after the couple brought Preston in unresponsive and in cardiac arrest. He could not be saved. A post-mortem examination revealed he had suffered more than 40 separate injuries. In the weeks that followed, investigators uncovered what prosecutors described as a 16-week campaign of routine ill-treatment, physical ssault, and sxual ab*se.
Varley, a 37-year-old high school teacher at South Shore Academy in Blackpool, tried to tell investigators the baby had accidentally drowned in the bath. Prosecutors dismantled that account entirely, presenting evidence that Preston's injuries were consistent with his airways being deliberately obstructed. The jury also heard that Varley had taken and distributed indecent images and videos of the baby — 13 counts in total — and had shared them with his co-accused. Preston had been brought to hospital three separate times during the four months he was in their care.
On June 15, 2026, after hearing all the evidence, the jury returned 29 guilty verdicts between the two men. Varley was convcted of mrder, two counts of assault by pe*******on of a child, five counts of child cruelty, grievous bodily harm, sxual ssault, and 13 counts of taking indecent photographs and videos of Preston. McGowan-Fazakerley was convcted of allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty, and sxual *ssault. As the verdicts were read aloud, Varley put his hands to his face, collapsed to his knees in the dock, and vomited. Preston's mother and grandmother sobbed throughout.
Both men will be sentenced at Preston Crown Court at a later date.
The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement: "Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley had a responsibility to care for and protect baby Preston. They violated that responsibility in the most horrific way imaginable."
He was brought into their home as a baby who needed a family. He never made it to his second birthday. What does it say about the system that he was brought to hospital three times before anyone intervened?