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? 💙

I think you are right.

People understandably don't want to know that things like this happen, but that turning away because it's so horrific or uncomfortable (or alternately, some thinking "it's only a few cases, why change everything for something that is comparatively rare") is sadly a big part of what fuels the kind of enabling behaviour that seems to have been in evidence here.

The trial is still ongoing, no conviction yet. I have been following it on the trial podcast, I have to skip some bits, I can’t listen to it all. The medical experts are not in agreement about cause of death. Part of me hopes they are innocent because the alleged abuse is too horrendous to contemplate. I don’t know how the jury are getting through it, I think I would have vomited in my handbag having to sit and listen to the details of it all.

i agree with you OP, babies are statically safer with female caregivers. Two men, not even married or even living together? I can’t work out their arrangement but SS still put this baby in their care. I think it’ll be an enquiry.

I didn't take that they were in disagreement. I thought that Crane (for the defence) basically said there were other possible explanations, that's all. It doesn't rule out the prosecution's case.

I think they were living together when it happened but had to move to their parents after Preston died when their house became a crime scene

Exactly.

The best they could do, in fact (bearing in mind the defence is obligated to defend to ensure a fair trial) is to say that each individual injury could potentially have happened in other ways. Not that there was any evidence at all that it did, and they didn't connect a pattern which is a key part of it. Notably they were NOT able to refute directly what the prosecution's pathologist said. Which was that most of baby Preston's injuries (which included bruising on the back of his throat and a perforated bowel, as well as bruising from fingermarks on his head) were most likely to be the direct result of sexual abuse/rape. Sorry to be graphic, but her evidence was pretty compelling.

I would be very surprised if either of these men got off. The prosecution's case is absolutely damning.

Yes I’m sure you’re right. They are trying to introduce reasonable doubt I suppose.

the case relies a lot on the expert evidence though. Which has in the past resulted in wrongful convictions like the mothers convicted after serial cot deaths and the post office cases. And the reason the Lucy Letby conviction is constantly questioned.

i have no legal training or experience so just viewing as a lay person

I keep expecting to see more about this case in the news but I’ve seen nothing on the BBC. The Letby trial was in the news every day. I wonder why

The trial is being reported live in the Manchester Evening News.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/live-preston-davey-trial-updates-33844580

I'm assuming the BBC will give a full headline report when the trial is complete. But I can see that they have actually been reporting it fairly regularly? For example:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g41gnd8evo

Ah I think it’s in the local reporting then, not national

I remember the Baby P case got a lot of coverage. I think a female abuser would be in the news.

This case has had a fair amount of headline news coverage. More than the case of Leiland James Corkhill who was another 13mo murdered by his adoptive mother, so I don’t think it’s necessary based on the gender of the accused. There’s got to be careful reporting of a live trial, and often cases of child abuse like this get more coverage following a conviction. And more coverage again if there’s a political point to be made from it or an obvious scapegoat or total system failure like in the case of Baby P, or how lockdown made children more vulnerable to abuse because they were hidden away. Or if there’s a quiet news cycle a case might gain more coverage but at the moment global politics is significant in the headlines, and the Henry Nowak case is huge at the moment so other cases are further down the running order.

JMF has confirmed in his testimony that JV is his former partner. He’s certainly shown no loyalty to him, being very critical of the videos he took of Preston. He’s currently being cross examined by JV’s team, and I imagine the prosecution cross will be harsher. JV was ripped apart

Where are you following the trial toast?

On the MEN website here:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/live-preston-davey-trial-updates-33844580

I’m waiting to read the prosecution questioning of JMF because so far it feels like it would be harder for the jury in terms of beyond reasonable doubt, compared to JV. His account just feels so constructed/ practised.

I think so too. I think of Leiland James Corkhill whose case I looked up again after seeing Preston’s because they seem so similar and his adoptive father was cleared of allowing his death even though the evidence against him seemed far more damning. His partner would say in texts to him that she was leathering him, called him a fat shit and a dickhead, and he knew she smacking a literal baby and he was still found not guilty of knowing his partner was a risk to their baby and not protecting Leiland from her. I know it’s a different jury but there’s far less evidence that we’ve heard against JMF. Maybe that jury was very lenient and he was very lucky to escape conviction, but if it is anything to go by, JMF may well not be convicted. I’d be absolutely shocked if JV were acquitted though.

I hadn’t remembered that case 😢 Same, I can’t see how JV would get away with it but it feels much harder to prove without doubt for JMF.

Well, the prosecutor went straight for it, saying that he's deflecting joint responsibility onto JV, and knew way more at the time that he claims and did nothing about it, when any caring parent would have done so.

All JMF has said in response to this is "okay".

I'm guessing it will rest on how much the jury thinks he was actively complicit, involved in the planning of the abuse and is lying to cover up. There's quite a lot here to suggest that he and JV concocted a whole story to explain things which is damning in a different way.

His phrasing (much in the present tense, as well as overuse of detail using the exact same words as JV ) really is incredibly weird.

I think (or I am hoping) he's toast.

I don’t think that’s true. Have you heard of Oakley Barnett? He was a 14 month old boy whose mother was found guilty last Thursday of drugging and murdering him after social services decided to remove him from her.

That story has a tiny fraction of the Preston Davey coverage. People are probably misremembering the Lucy Letby trial. As with this trial they’re both getting reported on daily and they both have a Daily Mail podcast, but the coverage is relatively low key until a verdict comes through. As with Letby, JV and JMF will be all over the front pages if they’re found guilty, it will be a huge story.

The Letby trial was national news everyday. I was in hospital at the time with a sick baby and everyday it was another horrid revelation for weeks on end. The hospital we were in (not local to the case) had to put out comms to reassure parents in the Nicu and maternity wards.

One child is killed every week in the UK on average. I assume some are never covered in the national news at all. They usually wait til the person is found guilty and then cover it, show sentencing remarks etc. Lucy L and Beverley Allitt were unusual as they were nurse serial killers. Harold Shipman too

Thank you. That is really awful. I am learning a lot from this thread, it is obvious that these cases don't get much publicity, and that is quite shocking to me.

I hope these 2 men are put away for a very long time.

That must have been a nightmare.

It was emotionally very challenging and I watched my baby like a hawk. Not helped by the nurse we had, I swear she had munchausen.

i can’t have been the only one struggling

Yep, like I said the Lucy Letby trial received daily coverage in the newspapers, it had a podcast made about it by the Daily Mail and live updates from the Manchester Evening News, as with the JV/JMF trial. But the coverage during the Letby trial was low key compared to the coverage when she was convicted. It will be the same with this case, if Varley is convicted of murder.

So I’m just saying it’s incorrect that this case is being ignored or going under the radar or that no one cares about it, that’s all. It’s a big story and it’s getting a lot of coverage.