Former teacher guilty of sexually abusing and murdering baby boy he wanted to adopt - CPS

[IwantToRetire]

Distressing content
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A former teacher has been found guilty of sexually abusing and murdering a baby boy that he planned to adopt.

Jamie Varley, 37, was convicted at Preston Crown Court of murder, child cruelty, sexual offences and indecent images relating to 13-month-old Preston Davey.

John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, was convicted of allowing the death of a child, child cruelty and sexual assault.

Varley was in the process of adopting baby Preston (also known as Elijah) with his partner McGowan-Fazakerley. Just four months after being placed with the couple, Preston was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital unconscious and in cardiac arrest. Sadly, Preston could not be saved.

Varley tried falsely claiming that Preston had accidentally drowned in a bath, but prosecutors were able to prove that his injuries were consistent with his airways being obstructed.

The evidence presented by the prosecution proved that in the final months of Preston’s life, he was routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted – suffering more than 40 separate injuries.

CPS statement continues at https://www.cps.gov.uk/north-west/news/former-teacher-guilty-sexually-abusing-and-murdering-baby-boy-he-wanted-adopt

More from a BBC report - also distressing:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyp77l79e9o

I thought there was a thread about this, but cant find one. But sorry if a duplicate.

I really only wanted to post out of respect for this poor baby and the horror of his short life.

RIP

This case is unbelievably horrific and Preston’s murder was entirely preventable. Attending A&E with a baby his age is not unusual, and very few clinicians would immediately think “asphyxiation” when a child presents with a chest infection. Some of the bruising could be explained by normal pre walking injuries but the head bruising pattern is a red flag and the inability to explain the broken arm is ridiculous. I’ve seen many children with elbow fractures in my time and they and inconsolable. It’s not a normal injury at his age (normal in an older child falling off a climbing frame, bike or trampoline) and it would have had to have happened with a very obvious mechanism of injury at a very obvious time. Normal parents couldn’t have missed it. Preston should have been removed at that point.

Social services have a very obvious “scared caste“ issue. “Not all men” etc. but if men can adopt babies then paedophiles will adopt babies and it needs to be a consideration. Pre-verbal infants should not be placed in households without a woman. I find it very unlikely that a woman of any orientation or a straight man could self describe or be described as “a sassy drama queen” and be thought a suitable person to adopt an infant. His head of y11 status and safeguarding role probably helped, but again, he may have been put there by the school because of his sacred caste. There is a sub-set of society absolutely in thrall to sassy drama queens.

Sexual abuse and murder aside, their “parenting” was openly horrific. The aggression was there to see if anyone had looked, the violent spinning in public, the filming him alone in (a stone cold considering the timings) bath “to encourage independence”, sharing videos of his sleep deprivation - shouting “BOO” as he tried to fall into exhausted sleep. On the day he died they “didn't notice” his anal injury as they didn’t change his nappy before taking him out, JV propped him up in bed with a bottle without changing his nappy or washing the vomit off him, or changing him out of his vommitty clothes, he left him alone in the bath. This is their own explanation given to explain what happened - they think this is an ok chain of events to tell the police.

It’s unbelievable that they pleaded not guilty. The pathologist on the defence team even said that Preston had been sexually abused. JMF may have had an outside chance if JV had fallen on his sword - he arrived home only minutes before they left the house for the hospital - Preston was already critically injured before he was home and the only possible perpetrator was JV - but traces JMF semen were found on the cot and the videos shared between them show cruelty and in the context, at least one video in which both men are present seems to show the aftermath of rape.

Baby murderers have got off lightly in the past, but with the mitigation of having “snapped” and shaken - Preston’s murder was almost planned - plan to adopt, plan to abuse. The pathologist said one video prior to his murder, Preston was clearly on the edge of respiratory arrest with a compressed trachea and blue lips - they had asphyxiated him before - they knew what was coming and they did it anyway. JV deserves whole life imo.

It's s about reducing risk, not eliminating it.

Sexual abuse and murder aside, their “parenting” was openly horrific. The aggression was there to see if anyone had looked, the violent spinning in public, the filming him alone in (a stone cold considering the timings) bath “to encourage independence”, sharing videos of his sleep deprivation - shouting “BOO” as he tried to fall into exhausted sleep. On the day he died they “didn't notice” his anal injury as they didn’t change his nappy before taking him out, JV propped him up in bed with a bottle without changing his nappy or washing the vomit off him, or changing him out of his vommitty clothes, he left him alone in the bath. This is their own explanation given to explain what happened - they think this is an ok chain of events to tell the police.

Quite. Preston was only in the earliest stages of adoption here, and there should have been close monitoring as a matter of course. They are GLARINGLY bad at parenting this little baby and nobody notices anything wrong? Or when they do, it doesn't go anywhere?

Why? Because of Varley's "sass"? Please.

I’m really surprised how few people on here understand the role of social workers. They don’t decide to take children - that’s the courts role. And (ime) courts are very reluctant to remove children from a home. They give awful parents way more chances than I would!

There is just no way social workers decided they’d rather give Preston to a gay couple than have him stay with the birth family. “Wokery” had nothing to do with the decision to put him up for adoption.

I do, however, completely agree about middle class bias with most professions. I’ve personally seen it in doctors, nurses, teachers, police. In addition, somebody with DSL training will know exactly what will cause red flags and will know exactly what to say to deflect suspicion.

Yep. Over 99% of sexual abusers are male. That's a pretty damning statistic.

It doesn't mean women never abuse, as we know, so we can never assume that, but the most likely scenario for CSA will be a male in the picture (and most of the women who abuse are involved with one). Unrelated males are, I believe, even more risk statistically. Here, we have two.

These are depraved men who hopefully will be experiencing all their wildest fantasies in prison….

I expect we’ll hear “lessons will be learned” and “full review” etc etc. It has occurred to me after a recent experience in which I was given this very line, that how on earth do we know that lessons have been learned? Is there any audit of this? It’s the biggest and most meaningless brush-off.

I can't stop thinking about this poor baby 😢 how anyone could do even half the things they did to him is unimaginable. Just so cruel and cold.

?

No judge initiated the decision to remove Preston from his foster mother and made them pursue a placement with this couple. They applied to court to cement their decision.

The court’s ultimate decision will be based on sw reports.

Social workers most definitely have biases as well. It can be towards age, class, career and social standing race, religion whatever at the expresse of the child’s safety and well-being. The fact that they weren’t suspicious of repeated breathing difficulties and a broken elbow. A birth family would never be given the same leniency, they’d be having a child protection medical and seeking for the baby to be removed.

I’m really surprised how few people on here understand the role of social workers. They don’t decide to take children - that’s the courts role. And (ime) courts are very reluctant to remove children from a home. They give awful parents way more chances than I would!

I think it is disingenuous to suggest that social workers don't decide to take children and to blame courts for that.

The people who decide the child needs to be taken are the social workers. If the social workers had not decided this then the case would not be in court.

The court are heavily influenced by the experts in court who are the social workers or people brought in to support their case. They rely on them for the information about the child's situation. The court does not visit the child at home or see them interacting with their parents outside court.

The case is in court because social workers recommend removing the child and take it to court to get permission to do that.

The courts sometimes don't agree that the social workers have presented sufficient evidence to balance the harm caused to children by removing them from their parents with the harm that moderately abusive parents are doing them.

There is just no way social workers decided they’d rather give Preston to a gay couple than have him stay with the birth family. “Wokery” had nothing to do with the decision to put him up for adoption.

But they did make that decision. The "foster for a few months"/"granny with his sister" arrangement was put to them and they rejected it in favour of giving him to a gay couple.

I am unconvinced that this has nothing to do with political correctness.

If you were trying to find a family for a baby and your choices were a woman in her 60s with cancer, who had already had their own child removed from their care to be placed in a yoi for torturing and murdering someone OR a couple in their 30s with good jobs, a nice home, one of them a well respected and well liked teacher, great references, childcare experience, loving and supportive families, passed all checks and vetting, which would you go for?
Especially given that the baby is going to need a permanent home for the next 18-20 years and it's unknown if he will have any developmental or behavioural issues as he grows up but had a very shaky start in life.

Whether you agree or not the law is that prospective adopters cannot be discriminated against due to their sex, so the social worker couldn't have ruled them out on that basis.

Very similar to many cases
where someone flags something isn’t right
and are told to shut up stop being racist homophobic or whatever the latest buzz word is

I’m sure a school teacher was told to shut the fuck up and not be racist with regards to her feelings on the guy who killed the little girls in Southport

And I think mental health workers were told not to admit , go softly on the guy who stabbed the students and the man in Nottingham because he was black

Well granny already had a grandchild placed with her so that argument falls apart.

But 'granny' would be 4 years older [she's currently 66] and coping with 2 children not one

@Fillies4DeclanRice and @Imdunfer he was not with his gran because the court, for whatever reason, ruled her out and chose a care plan of adoption. Social workers then had to try to find adopters.

Courts won't wait indefinitely for family members to be able to care for a child and legislation is clear that delays should be avoided and permanence secured. Family is first choice but cases can't just stay in court waiting. For a child of his age they won't finish on a care order in foster care and just hope gran can do it later on. I don't know gran's situation and we only ever get one side in these cases because social workers can't go to the press and say "actually, they were ruled out because x,y,z."
Gran would have had to be assessed and approved - for kinship care like an SGO it would have had to go to a panel for approval and if she was very ill that likely wouldn't be approved.
I am not saying that is right, just that every involved is bound by legislation, process etc.

No one has sat there and thought "sod him being with family, I want to give some gay men a baby for woke points."

If you were trying to find a family for a baby and your choices were a woman in her 60s with cancer, who had already had their own child removed from their care to be placed in a yoi for torturing and murdering someone

You have missed a couple of vital parts of that story. The first is that her daughter murdered someone as a teenage decades ago and she was imprisoned, not taken away from her mother for poor parenting. The second is that granny already had his sister.

You might also mention that survival rates are really good for breast cancer these days and that her prognosis is good, I think, and she has a life expectancy into him being an adult. Also that the delay in handing him over would only have been because she would not be allowed to lift him for a couple of months.

Changes the picture a bit, doesn't it?

Beyond heart breaking that every single person who was meant to protect this child failed him in the worst possible way.

The two disgusting men who adopted him deserve whatever comes there way. They are absolutely the worst of the worst. Unsurprising to hear once again the systematic failings of police and social services. So many people complicit in this poor babies suffering.

No one has sat there and thought "sod him being with family, I want to give some gay men a baby for woke points."

I don't think many people are suggesting that, just something more insidious in the institutions safeguarding and servicing society at the moment.

Just to say that his foster parents didn't fail him at all, so it's not "every single person". He at least experienced love and a healthy, nurturing environment with them for the first nine months of his life.

Pretty much everyone else though...

Whose actual JOB it was to protect him. I mean, ultimately, it was the State that chose to place a non verbal child in an environment where he goes from being happy and healthy and ends up horrifically sexually abused and dead within four short months because multiple red flags were missed, he wasn't properly monitored by those very people who are expected to do so. That is a huge responsibility and heads should roll.

It was their anger and rage at Preston for behaving like a baby.

They expected a living doll they could sexually abuse and then put to bed for the night, and he cried. Their abuse made him cry more, so they got angrier They didn't form any emotional bond with him, so they didn't empathise with him when he was suffering, no matter how extreme. There was nothing there internally, no conscience, no empathy, to prompt restraint. The only limit they could have had was fear of external intervention, and they already knew they could talk rings around social services. If Preston was still alive, he's probably still be with them now.

I don't intend to idealise biological parents, because biological parents do abuse and kill their children. But any kind of emotional bond towards the child on the abusing adult's part will act as a brake on the adult's most violent impulses. The abuser will take a longer period to reach lethal levels of violence, or never reach that level at all. As we now know, JV had no brake and he exerted no limits on his rage. In fact, he seems to have wallowed in his rage.

You implied safeguarding was an issue and clearly you’re wrong, as we know she has a grandchild in her long term care.

Also Preston was not murdered this year. She’d be early 60s at the time this was going on. Adoption is a massive leap before offering support to gran and wider family to keep him.

@AzureStaffy

The statistics show that over 98% of sexual offences are committed by men. Your mother dsunds like a nightmare but she was far from the norm for women. Women who commit these crimes are outliers statistically.

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of relying on other prisoners to dish out real justice but I hope to god they pick up the pace with these 2. I will raise a glass to whoever torments them on a daily basis in the same way.

I feel physically sick - that poor child.

My brother was a facilitator in a prison that was mainly for sex offenders, mostly child sex offenders. I honestly don’t know how he did it, he’s retired early as he’d simply had enough. His opinion is that you can’t rehabilitate these people, they’re truly vile and in his opinion shouldn’t be allowed to walk the earth ever again!

No it doesn't, and if I was social services/the judge there is no chance I'd have waited and hoped on granny over looking for a permanent adoptive family.

My brother used to work in the prison service, his was mostly sex offenders, the majority of the offences were against children. Unfortunately they’ll probably end up in a prison like this, hopefully they won’t and will get the punishment they deserve!