Baby Preston Davey - Content warning concerns CSA (added by MNHQ)

[Sadmamma35]

I’ve just read about baby Preston Davey and I cannot stop thinking about him. I have a 13-month-old of my own, which is probably why this has hit me so hard — I can really relate and my baby is my everything.
I’m crying as I write this. Why does it hurt so much for a baby I’ve never even met? Has anyone else felt this way?
How do you cope with the negative thoughts that follow when you read something like this? 💙

Is he the one who referred to himself as "sassy" ? I guess his cheeky chappie facade isn't working in court.

If ever there was a case for bringing back the death penalty....

How do you know this?

You can follow live updates of the trial on Facebook, I think it’s Manchester Evening News.

God it's so slow. So now they are dismissed til Monday.

I don't understand why they are pleading not guilty in light of the evidence and seem to think denial is enough to set them free. Preston had injuries that is a fact, denying you caused those injuries doesn't explain how he got them when you were supposedly caring for him.

Because they are arrogant shits who think if they say x happened then everyone must believe them.

I know, just moving at a snail”s pace.

I think it must be. And don't forget, they'll be seeing much worse evidence than has been released to the public.

The prosecution seem to be angling that he used and sent images of him harming Preston to JMV as a "punishment" to get him to do whatever JV demanded. (I still don't think this exonerates JMV, at least, I sincerely hope it won't). But my god, he really is one nasty, manipulative, psycho bastard.

The link to the trial updates is here:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/preston-davey-live-trial-updates-33844580

*JMF, not JMV, sorry.

Eurgh, the pair of them.

His ability for denial is disturbing in itself, same with John, I thought his answers and pretending he’d no idea of anything was v chilling also. He is up for sexual assault as well, the live updates today indicate they both abused him sexually while he hung over his cot.

Yes. It's vile.

The other quote that got me was, when the KC said that he was obviously taking all these pictures for his own gratification he basically said something like, "Oh no, if I was doing it for THAT, I'd have taken thousands." Oh here it is:

"He was your plaything and you were serially abusing him," Mr Wright KC puts to the defendant.
"No, if that was the case there would be thousands of images," Mr Varley says.

So he knows damn well what taking photos like that is all about. Using Snapchat too, which deletes images. They had him for four MONTHS, there were already far more pictures than would be usual, not enough time to take 'thousands', and so many were very suggestive of abuse and 'mementoes' and trophy stuff.

Vardy's language choices (very distancing "what was done to the little one" etc) are just so very strange and telling, aren't they? "Our boy was not sexually abused or murdered, or hit" he said. Well, why then does the pathologist's report show exactly that, then? And it WAS done... by YOU.

Urgh. Urgh. I'm hoping the fact that JMF stayed with him after all this and after the case was brought to light counts against him too. I think he was a willing partner in the abuse.

I can’t say it enough. That poor, defenceless, gorgeous little baby. Baby Preston. He didn’t stand a chance did he.

Agree. The way they both talk is weird especially JM, emotionless. It’s like they are trying to say the problem was him, the injuries, the frozen watchfulness, the clumsiness is all because of where he came from. They must have chosen a foster child because they knew he’d come with trauma, the seizures were likely caused by the abuse and it was like they were saying it’s the way he is.. if he’d hadn’t have died, this may have went unnoticed for a long time.

I can’t stop thinking of Preston’s suffering. I want to save him but I can’t. I’m not religious but I’ve prayed for Preston and think of him all the time. I thought of him this morning on my way to work and my heart breaks.

I have been reading with mounting horror. This so disturbing because it does sound as if it's been calculated. They must have known they would kill him by doing those things to him. What part of their brains is missing?

Our society has such a huge problem with porn, it seems to be very addictive. People treat it as just a bit of adult fun but the fact that CSA is all over the internet is very very worrying. What happens to all the offenders who only serve short terms in jail? Are they back on the straight and narrow? Or back on their computers?

Poor little Preston, he had the chance of a normal life and it was stolen by these bastards.

Yes, it is. This case has made be both sick and angry in equal measure.

Only yesterday, I saw a news story where a man had been caught with "thousands of images of the worst kinds of sexual abuse of very young children and babies." Thousands. Every single one of those children/babies was being abused by adult men the way Preston was. And there are in addition unrelated random adult men (mostly) actually using that material to masturbate to. (I'm sorry to be using such blunt language around this,btw because I know most of us would rather not know and be euphemistic. It makes most normal adults want to vom, but it really needs to be made clear that what happened to Preston really isn't just a one-off case and how institutional failures in our society as well as particularly porn use is enabling this horror).

We MUST as a society do better with safeguarding and preventing situations like this. And as you rightly say, CSA "porn" use is not in any way "a bit of fun". Firstly, those are actual children and the aim is to foment a desire to sexually abuse actual children. Secondly, it is known to be addictive and escalate. And every single man who searches out those images to get off to is therefore likely to be dangerous to children in some way. These are real children being abused, and men getting off on thinking about doing it.

You can see how even the most extreme levels of CSA like this can indeed be "calculated" to be carried out anyone who wants to and finds ways to get away with it in their real lives too, who often like to make their own images and share them with other repellant people. Abusers like JV don't care, just about being able to carry on. So it falls to the the rest of society to see this clearly, put systems in place and 'stop up the gaps' (there are clearly SO many still being missed) to prevent it happening.

It’s the defence medical professional today. It’s so infuriating to read because of course each injury could have an alternative explanation if looked at in isolation, but when you look at the big picture and everything together it’s quite obvious what’s happened.

Hopefully that is very obvious to the jury.

I read the defence medical witness testimony. He certainly hedged a lot and had to agree that eg the arm injury looked non accidental. I suppose the defence can only argue for reasonable doubt on some of the injuries.

Reading the trial report this morning I see there was a really massive amount of adoption support given by SS etc. McGowan Fazackerley puts on a very respectable front. He seems to have been away a lot. I suppose his legal team are trying to distance him, but surely he noticed rough treatment and bruises? They've had a long time to craft his defence.

I feel so sad reading this. I also feel sad when I think about my own childhood.

My mother was really abusive. She was really abused wen she was a child and the cycle continued.

Child abuse is so awful. What can we as society do better?

It is sad. People don't want to acknowledge it. Presumably frontline social workers, police, medics see it but the average person in the street doesn't like to believe it can happen. It is the innocent who suffer. With domestic violence, too, people look the other way.

I think as a society we are very reluctant to believe in evil. Anyone who denounces porn is seen as a spoilsport, prude, you name it, but I think it's so addictive it's out of control.

Like you I am at a loss as to what would help. I've noticed how few people comment on this thread, compared with totally stupid useless threads. Fingers in ears, lalala. I can't ignore it, though. It haunts me.

The partner (JMF) was on the stand yesterday and will be again today.

He is very much underplaying what has happened and again, use of odd 'distancing' language, claiming he's only just seen footage etc etc. He is absolutely complicit imo & I hope he is convicted alongside the psycho who is STILL apparently his partner. Neither of them should see the light of day again.