Teacher denies harming adopted son in murder trial at Preston Crown Court

A teacher on trial for the murder and sexual abuse of his adopted son has told a jury he did not harm the child and denied fabricating an account that the baby drowned in a bath. Jamie Varley, 37, gave evidence at Preston Crown Court regarding the death of 13-month-old Preston Davey, who died after being rushed to hospital from the defendants' Blackpool home on July 27, 2023.

Varley said he left the infant, whom he called Elijah, unattended in a shallow bath for one or two minutes that afternoon. He testified that he returned to find the child submerged. He described initially thinking it was a close call but said Preston began vomiting heavily and lost consciousness after his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, returned home from work. The couple rushed the baby to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, where medics attempted to revive him for an hour before pronouncing him dead.

However, a Home Office pathologist, Dr. Alison Armour, later ruled out drowning. A post-mortem examination found the child had sustained approximately 40 traumatic injuries, both internal and external. Dr. Armour gave the cause of death as acute upper airways obstruction, caused by either smothering or an...