Warning: The details of this story are graphic and disturbing. Reader discretion strongly advised.
(LifeSiteNews) — A wave of grief and outrage has swept the UK as details of the brutal abuse and murder of 13-month-old Preston Davey at the hands of the same-sex couple who adopted him make headlines. On June 16 — what would have been Preston’s fourth birthday — a candlelight vigil was held at Preston Flag’s Market, where devastated biological father Gary Nolan mourned his son’s “four months of terror at the hands of a monster.”
The day before, the little boy’s tormenters were convicted after an eight-week trial at the Preston Crown Court in Preston, Lancashire.
Jamie Varley was convicted of murder, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, sexual assault of a child, and multiple accounts of related to child abuse material. John McGown-Fazakerley was found guilty of two counts of child cruelty, the sexual assault of a child, and causing or allowing the death of a child.
Preston Davey was born prematurely on June 16, 2022, in Manchester. His mother, Sarah Davey, had a long criminal record, including a murder conviction in 1998. At five days old, Davey was placed in emergency foster care by the Oldham Council. For his first five months, Davey thrived with a foster family, where he was described as a healthy, happy, and bubbly baby.
On January 6, 2023, Varley and McGown-Fazakerley, a homosexual couple in their 30s, were approved as an adoptive couple by Adoption Now, which provides recommendations to local councils. Varley was a high school teacher; his partner a financial sales manager.
Adoption Now described Preston as a little boy needing “love, affection, safety, and stability.” The two men visited Preston at his foster home on February 13, 38 days after being approved by Adoption Now. Just 41 days later, on April 1, nine-month-old Preston was moved into the home of the two men in Blackpool. Four months later, he was dead.
Within days after Preston’s arrival in their home, Varley texted his sister to complain that the baby wasn’t sleeping, stating, “He’s dead meat today. Didn’t sleep last night after 11:30. Up every one and a half hours.” On May 15, McGown-Fazakerley made a 999 call but swiftly hung up, although the operator caught the phrase: “Put it down.” (Presumably the order came from Varley.) Ten days later, Preston was brought to Blackpool Victoria Hospital “floppy and unresponsive” with bruises on his head.
Nursing staff noticed Preston’s condition, with a medical report stating that the little boy had “unexplained injuries, inconsistent with a version of events given.” Social services and the Lancashire Police were both informed, but the authorities concluded that the bruises were likely due to Preston learning to walk. On June 30, Preston was back in the hospital with more head bruises as well as rashes, diarrhea, a high temperature, and vomiting. To ward off questions, Varley produced a video of the baby “pulling a toybox onto himself” and oddly commented, “You lot are going to think we have been abusing him or something. A week later, on July 6, Preston was back at the hospital with a fractured elbow.
Still, the authorities missed the obvious. Preston’s social worker, Amy Shepherdson, texted Varley after the third hospital visit to comfort him. “Just to reassure you they said they had absolutely no concerns,” she wrote. “U absolutely did the right thing.” During a home visit, however, she did note that the child had a “very sad face and a little cry.” Around the same time, Varley told a colleague that he was having “dark thoughts” about drowning Preston.
The Gazette reported that on July 23 “Varley takes a series of photos of Preston, stretching over a period of three minutes, 12 seconds. The child, asleep or unconscious, has his head and arms over the top horizontal bar of his cot and his neck resting on it, his body partially suspended and his legs in a ‘frog-like’ position. His tongue is protruding and his lips appear blue.” On July 27, Preston was again rushed to the hospital. Varley claimed he’d found the boy in a bathtub. He could not be resuscitated and was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m.
The couple’s brutal crimes were discovered during the post-mortem on July 31 that concluded the baby’s cause of death was not drowning but “acute upper airway obstruction” and found “around 40 external and internal injuries, including bruises to Preston’s forehead, throat, mouth, bladder, bottom and bleeding in the lungs with some evidence of ‘forcible penetration’ to the child’s ‘abnormal’ anatomy, regarded as clinical signs of sexual abuse.”
After a lengthy investigation that uncovered horrifying images and videos on Varley’s phone, the two men were arrested and charged. Their trial began on April 20. Both claimed innocence. When the verdict was announced on July 15, Varley fell to his knees and began vomiting. Karen Tonge of the Crown Prosecution Service called the case “most shocking and horrific cases I have dealt with in my career.”
In an attempt to curry sympathy, Varley told the court that he had always wanted to be “a daddy” but thought that because he was a gay man it was not a possibility. He insisted that he was a loving, devoted father. Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fallows called the two men “pure evil” and stated that “Almost from day one, they set about abusing Preston and making his short life a harrowing tale of misery and pain.”
Debbie Davey, Preston’s heartbroken grandmother, told the Telegraph that the abuse of her grandson should have been identified earlier, especially when he was brought back to the hospital with a broken arm — and questioned whether fears of being accused of “homophobia” made social workers reluctant to speak out. Several other commentators, including GB News presenters Patrick Christys and Michelle Dewberry, asked the same question. Psychologist Jo Hemmings was blunt in her TV appearance: “Some of the errors may have happened because it is a gay male couple. People feel they have to tread more carefully with a gay couple.”
“The most dangerous place a child can find himself is in the home of an unrelated man left to care for the child himself,” Katy Faust of the children’s rights organization Them Before Us wrote in response to the case. “Preston Davey lived with two.”
One Response
Gay people are pedophiles.