Can’t get over poor baby Preston

[Doximama2]

Not sure this is an AIBU, I never post on here but just feel I want to today. I am a 59 year old nana of 3 gourgous grandchildren including a one year old boy, the whole story in the need the last few weeks and especially this week about poor baby Preston that was tortured, abused and ultimately murdered by his 2 adoptive “fathers” has completely traumatized me. I am recovering from a big surgery 2 weeks ago so feeling emotional but this has really upset me so much that this was able to happen and that no one, not any social services, medics on visits to the hospital - one even with a broken elbow ffs - friends and family of these monsters realised what was happening and that Preston wasn’t a happy one year old. My grandson is always happy and smiling unless he is poorly so how did this go unnoticed? I had to turn the news off Monday when they showed this poor baby trying to sleep and this monster kept making him wake up.

im not naive, I have worked in public service including health and social services which I think is why I can’t comprehend how this was allowed to happen. It just feels like there is so many awful things in the world, and has made me so sad. 😭

Oh, he was yet another classic example of hiding in plain sight. He gave interviews boasting about his wrongdoings and it was laughed off, just part of his, "Bad boy but pretty" image.

It was even as if he was giving the public what they wanted. Sex parties, prostitutes, going to prison in Vietnam, Goings on at Yves Saint Laurent's villa in Marrakesh. Dead bodyguard left in a public dump, beating up your girlfriend, all part of the show.

"He's wild! Have to take it with a pinch of salt but the anecdotes! The blue eyes. Smokes a cigarette in a sexy way."

He was that person though. It wasn't a case of, "I'm not an evil bastard, I just play one in movies." No acting was ever required and he was too good looking to tire himself out by trying.

If you objected, you were meant to feel provincial, backward and petit bourgeois. In my case, puritanical and the catch all insult, "Anglo Saxon." to boot.

I waited for the backlash after he died but it was deflected by his children taking each other to court over the inheritance and other long held grudges. Then one brother shot dead the other one's dog and by now everybody is back feeling sorry for Alain for having such unruly kids. (They're mostly in their fifties and the eldest is sixty one.)

@Allisnotlost1 i know, I do feel like showing the videos of Preston are another violation of him, no dignity even after death. Allowing the media to descend like vultures on the whole macabre spectacle of what happened before his death. What good does it do to show this material?

I suppose you can’t not pay people. As they may not be found guilty. But it’s very annoying he was paid, with tax payers money, for two years.

I googled Alain Delon. Nothing really showed up. Said he was highly acclaimed etc etc

Just the English version of wikipedia gives you some clue. C'mon now.

Sorry, I'll link it but this is just the bare bones:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_DelonM

Look under the heading of, "Legal Troubles."

I'll stand by that he was not a very good person and the more you find out, the less you like.

Oh heck. Try again.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Delon

Poor Jamie had to “insist so an xray was done” what a loving, caring “daddy” he was!
Just listening to the list of bruises Preston had, over the course of a few week, is highly alarming. Also wouldn’t it be suspicious, that a baby, who was in good health, until this scum pair “took care of” was having seizures and regular visits to the hospital? It was all there in plain sight 😭
Rest in peace Little Angel.

I've read the English version. No way comparable to the horrible pair who abused baby Preston! C'mon now. Vastly different 🙄

Just read it again. It's unbelievable that a poster might pop him in the category of these vile child abusers and killers. Is it a derailing attempt, otherwise no idea why poster would want to talk about a deceased French actor who had lots of adult partners.

@PurpleSheep123 I'm not going to watch the video because it'll upset me, but yes, I did wonder why a previously perfectly healthy baby was having seizures not related to having a fever, and I'd have found it suspicious.

Honestly, don’t 😭 it broke my heart. Varley is so arrogant, seems to be bored with the investigation. Vile scum, may he rot in prison till the end of his miserable days!

It's not for everyone but IMO it's worth watching the second half for the judge's sentencing.. Varley got another 19 years and 8 years as well as his whole life order which I didn't realise, I wish we could see the camera the other way around.

That video actually strengthens my feelings on how badly the social workers failed him, the police are listing fresh bruises on his face on photographs pretty much every week and asking him to explain them, those bruises would have been evident every time he was seen by someone, social services, family etc.

If it was noted every time he went to hospital, then surely they should have been noted every time he was seen by social services too as a safeguarding measure.

Totally agree. I was mortified when I watched it. So many bruises, week after week?!
that in itself should be a concern, they were simply unable to keep the baby safe.

I'd rather not watch the link if I can avoid it, is there any other information about the bruises being mentioned above? I'd be interested to know if its that bruises were being found regularly when he was alive or if it refers to what was found retrospectively after his death. The press havent mentioned many I don't think (mainly one where the parents said about a toy box falling on him, think that was the second time he was in hospital) so I'd be curious to know if there's more information out there.

Yes. Showing any images of him taken by those horrors is bad enough, but repeatedly using the video of Preston being woken up, which was evidence of him being treated cruelly, feels really wrong.

Slight tangent but some material was redacted from the sentencing remarks of Clinton George, the murderer of Annabel Rook. The sentencing remarks in JV/JMF haven’t been published. There’s a complete lack of consistency in what gets published but I wonder whether this is because of the details. Though I’ve also read the appalling details of lots of crimes against children and adults in sentencing remarks so who knows. Again, I wonder whether these need to be in the public domain at all.

On suspension with pay, I wonder if there’s a clawback mechanism. If there’s anything to claw back. Presumably they each had some equity in the house.

There’s loads more information. The police investigator is going through multiple photos of Preston, all with different dates, pointing NEW bruises and asking paedo Varley how did they happen? To which he almost always replies with “no comment”. At one point he’s literally yawning. He seems to be more interested in fluffing his hair than in the questioning. The brass neck of that sadistic psycho 🤮 literally no remorse, zero empathy.
I wish there was more cover in the press about this. How could SS not see this?

Oh my goodness. I just can't anymore. That little boy was so badly failed. At this point I'm wondering if he'd have been better off with his mum than those two. (His foster parents were wonderful though and I feel really sad for them.) You're right, JV's mum looked after Preston, did she not notice anything wrong? Did any of JV's or JMF's families notice anything untoward?

Why did JV get those extra years added on to his sentence?

Another little boy was murdered by his father at around the same time, and was seen at the same hospital as Preston was with unexplained bruising.

@Allisnotlost1 I agree. I've watched the one video his foster parents shared of him laughing, because that's a nice one. The one of him being woken up was described to me and I can't bear to watch it. I think the picture where Preston reminds me of my DS was taken after he started living with them which makes me feel sick. He looks so happy and smiley and they were hurting him.

I despise this genre of content, monetising murder. Yuck.

Is it explained though if those bruises were known about at the time though? My understanding is a lot of the key injuries he was found to have were proven by videos found on Varley's phone after he was arrested, eg the bite mark, that had been hidden while he was alive.

Apologies appreciate it isn't for you to tell me what's in the video im just wary as I don't agree with everything that has been shared (like the poster above I watched the video of Preston laughing that was shared to remember him) I'm also wary of clickbait vids that are influencers profiting from this.

The video is the police showing him the photos from his phone which show Preston with injuries. These injuries are exclusively to his face, which can be see in the photos and would very much have been visible to anyone:

13th May
16th May AM
16th May PM show new bruising
26th May
5th June
10th June
2th June
16th June
29th june

ALL of those photos show different bruises to Preston face, but they are ALL either on his temples or on his forehead, a lot of them described as linear (vertical), and sometimes 2 or three bruises at the same time (both temples and forehead).

@SandyHappy What the fuck were they doing to that baby? The more I hear about this case the worse it gets, (aside from the obvious things that make it terrible.) That poor child.

It was in plain sight, that's what makes me so angry.

Thank you @Runningswanker for the information and suggestions for how people can get involved in support of safeguarding.

I’ve just watched the video. What a deeply arrogant arse Varley is. A child is dead and he couldn’t care less. Could. Not. Care. Less. He hated that baby. We know he thought he could pull the wool over the eyes of the social workers and medics. We saw the performance at the hospital as poor Preston lay dying. That police interview was the real him. Parents would have gone to meet with him on school open evenings. What a charlatan he is.

It's also weird how Varley keeps calling Preston 'the little one'. It might sound cutesy in his brain but it's a classic detachment technique to carry out harmful acts and deny his victim his humanity.

That poor baby was failed by everyone including his birth mother he didn’t stand a chance.
On the plus side Insiders and prison sources reported that other inmates hammered on cell bars and screamed warnings and threats of retribution the moment he arrived. Reports indicate that the severity of the threats left Varley "sobbing and quaking" in his cell on his first night. Due to the nature of his offenses, security measures have been put in place and he is spending most of his time isolated in his cell. Let’s pray to God they get to the piece of scum and inflict the most awful pain on him.