{"id":65781,"date":"2026-06-18T14:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/65781\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:19:13","slug":"mother-of-13-month-old-preston-davey-haunted-by-unimaginable-pain-of-his-murder-i-will-carry-for-the-rest-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/65781\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of 13-month old Preston Davey haunted by \u2018unimaginable pain\u2019 of his murder: \u2018I will carry for the rest of my life\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Breaking<\/p>\n

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\"Breaking<\/p>\n

Warning: This article may contain details that some readers find distressing<\/p>\n

The mother of a murdered 13-month-old baby<\/a> has said she will never forgive his adoptive parents for abusing her son, adding: \u201cThe reality of how he suffered is something I will carry for the rest of my life\u201d.<\/p>\n

High school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, has been handed a rare whole life order<\/a> for sexually abusing and murdering Preston<\/a> Davey, whom he adopted at nine months old with his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32.<\/p>\n

The ex-public schoolboy and financial sales manager was jailed for 25 years at Preston Crown Court for sexual assault and allowing the baby\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Turner said Preston had faced \u201cunremitting abuse\u201d and neglect before being killed by Varley during a sex attack.<\/p>\n

Turning to Varley, he said: \u201cIt was you who did this. You murdered him. A whole life order is a sentence of last resort for cases of the most extreme gravity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a case of the most extreme gravity. You must stay in prison for the rest of your life. You will never be eligible for parole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varley, wearing a purple T-shirt, looked gaunt and sat with his hands folded on his lap looking straight ahead.<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said the harrowing case was a \u201cfailure of the state and the safeguarding system\u201d and vowed to find out what went wrong, adding: \u201cI need to know whether we could have prevented Preston\u2019s murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the four months he was in the couple\u2019s care, Preston was routinely ill-treated, had indecent images and videos taken of him, and was sexually abused and physically assaulted, suffering 40 traumatic injuries.<\/p>\n

Preston had been taken from his mother, Sarah Davey, now 42, by an emergency care order by Oldham Council. At 14, Ms Davey was jailed for the \u201cunspeakably wicked\u201d murder of a frail pensioner in 1998 and has been in and out of prison ever since.<\/p>\n

\"PrestonPreston Davey (PA)<\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement, Ms Davey described the day Preston was taken from her as one of the worst of her life.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI had no choice in that decision. I tried to take some comfort in believing he would be safe, loved, and protected, and he was with his foster parents, Sandra and Paul (Cooper), I trusted them, they and the system trusted you, that trust was completely and unforgivably broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI will never forgive you for what you did to my son and what you stopped him from becoming and achieving in his life.<\/p>\n

\"HighHigh school teacher Jamie Varley (Lancashire Police)<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single day, I live with the unimaginable pain of wondering what he went through. Those thoughts do not leave me. They are with me when I wake up, and they haunt me when I try to sleep. The reality of how he suffered is something I will carry for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his victim impact statement, Preston\u2019s biological father, Gary Nolan, told of his grief at hearing the news of his son\u2019s death. \u201cHysterical and crying\u201d, Mr Nolan was admitted to hospital for his own safety and still takes medication to help manage his anxiety and depression.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cPreston was my first and only son. The fact that he has been taken away from me has stopped me from having a father-son relationship. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking forward to doing the simple things with him, playing football, teaching him how to ride a bike, having him ask me for help, seeing him learn to drive and of course celebrating his birthdays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has deprived my three daughters and me of ever having these opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JamieJamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley appeared at Preston Crown Court (Elizabeth Cook\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Sarah Cooper, who fostered Preston alongside her husband Paul, said his death had a \u201chuge impact\u201d on their lives and is the reason why they decided not to retire from fostering.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe felt we had a duty to other children and could not sit back and enjoy ourselves knowing that other children were being abused, mistreated and could die.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband Paul and I have continued to foster children to protect them. We are doing this for Preston, in his memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Cooper said the horrific crime had made him lose trust in the system, adding: \u201cPreston had his whole life ahead of him, one that should have been a happy life with a new family. I will never ever forget him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot express enough the pain that I am going through to even speak about this and the way his life was cut so short. I will never forget you Preston.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn 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 (Lancashire Police)<\/p>\n

Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were approved for adoption in January 2023 and Preston began living at their home in Blackpool, Lancashire, in April 2023. Following an eight-week trial, both men were convicted by a jury at Preston Crown Court<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

Varley 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The trial heard Preston had been taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital three times in the months before his death in July 2023, and was seen by a \u201cbattery of professionals\u201d during his short life, including multiple social workers, health visitors and medics. A social services investigation is under way.<\/p>\n

The trial heard that, at first, Ms Cooper thought Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley would make ideal parents for Preston, but she had a \u201cgut feeling\u201d something was wrong after he had spent a month with his new family.<\/p>\n

Varley had taken a year off as a textiles teacher and head of year 11 at South Shore Academy and confessed he had \u201cdark thoughts\u201d of suffocating or drowning Preston to a fellow teacher.<\/p>\n

He was Preston\u2019s main day-time care giver while McGowan-Fazakerley, a sales manager at an asset and finance leasing firm, was at work.<\/p>\n

\"PrestonPreston Davey visited hospital three times in the months before his death (Lancashire Police)<\/p>\n

The judge said Varley soon began to complain to friends and work colleagues that he was losing sleep and it was having an impact on his relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure that your growing and selfish resentment towards Preston played at least some part in your motivation for treating him so badly in the weeks which followed,\u201d Mr Justice Turner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not doubt that your professional background as a teacher together with your charm and easy manner did much to reassure the social workers and health professionals that all was well when it clearly was not.\u201d<\/p>\n

A government spokesperson said Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were \u201cevil abusers\u201d who exploited a vulnerable child.<\/p>\n

They said a national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel will work with an independent review commissioned by the local authority into the \u201chorrifying\u201d case, adding: \u201cThe public rightly demand answers about what went wrong and we can assure them we will make sure anyone responsible for negligence faces consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[9095,141,5,6],"class_list":["post-65781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-blackpool","tag-courts","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116771551153739072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}