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

She would have no say whatsoever

What is wrong with men.

The video of him having a (fake) meltdown in his jurassic park pajamas. Ffs.

No. The only thing you are allowed to input on is religion. I adopted two girls. Their birth mother specified they weren't to be brought up Catholic.

I read an account of the social worker who'd reassured the killers on one of the occasions after the baby had been taken to hospital. When the news broke of Henry Nowak's murder, it was very familiar.

I hope they both serve their time in prison relatively safely. The men who murdered Huntley and the other guy are also monsters. They would be equally deserving of torture and death. Having said that I'd shed no tears and lose no sleep if someone did get to them.

Surely that will just stop people becoming social workers, which will only make the issues worse?

I see what you are saying but from a “professional” point of view one can see where there are problems quite easily.

Just by gut instincts, is the baby bonded, do they seek their parent for comfort. Are the parents anxious, worried or disconnected

maybe i should talk to them.

everything is under resourced

It is sickening, abhorrent, and also heartbreaking to hear this.

They have been convicted now.
You cannot help but cry when you see the video of this poor little innocent sweetie bouncing up and down to "the wheels on the bus go "
What evil people are in this world

I’m fairly sure that they did and they superficially appeared to be stable, plausible explanations for illness / injury and so on. A quote I do remember from the trial was that Preston was a very visible child; he was not hidden away, the opposite.

Hmm.
In 4 months he attended hospital 3 times.
BBC reports that “The trial heard Preston had been taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital three times in the months before his death with suspicious bruises noticed by medical staff, but these were explained away.
Preston had also been seen by several social workers.”
So, not one bruise but several. Several visits by social workers. A foster carer being denied access.
Post mortem reveals 40 injuries and that the abuse must have started soon after Preston entered the couples care.
Im sorry but there was far too much acceptance and far too little investigation.
This child was a baby too young to speak, entirely reliant on others to protect him.

I can see an argument for litigation/professional sanctions if they knew someone had already been abusive and still approved custody but I don't think that's the case here.

You are effectively wanting to sue someone for not being able to foresee the future which is ridiculous.

They basically wouldnt let her see him and were bizarre and controlling about access...like incredibly hoop jumpy and difficult eg..11.30 -12 on a tuesday only....then cancelling some. the poor woman flagged her concerns that something wasnt right with the adoption team and was palmed off and ignored.

That poor baby. I agree those who placed that child with them should be investigated.

It's also worth noting that fostering and adoption agencies across the UK are currently being encouraged to consider 'consenting non monogamous' foster carers and adopters as the latest tick box exercise. This won't end well for children.

This isn't my usual username round these parts but I try not to give personal information under my GC username.

I wish I was surprised. But having seen how awful Social Services can be (via a family member who had fostered and had it break down) and how they let down vulnerable children again and again, I am not at all surprised that yet another child fell through the cracks straight into the arms of an abuser and killer.

If I'm being charitable, I'd acknowledge that SS are woefully underfunded and there ARE good social workers trying their damnest, often in the face of courts that will hand children back into the most horrendous circumstances in the name of parental rights. But there are so many SWs and managers who are so fucking inept and so fucking lazy that they fail not only the children but parents, foster parents and adopters who are screaming for help. Even foster parents who can afford private help are denied it because everything has to be approved by SS and it's like a black hole of incompetence. And that's assuming there's anyone there at all and they haven't left or gone on long term sick leave with no-one to fill the gap.

I saw a child be utterly failed because they were denied the help they desperately needed, leading to potentially the best shot they'd had at a decent life crumble away through lack of support. And it was all a merry-go-round of unfilled roles meaning support workers were never assigned, failure to tick a box to trigger something, kicking the can down the road, or even just failing to give a shit. I don't have children, I have the maternal instinct of a bollard and this made even me so angry that I barely even know where to start.

Until Social Services get wholesale reform this will happen again and again and again.

Those two 'men' will have a horrendous time in prison though. Prisoners don't like sex offenders and they absolutely don't tolerate child sex offenders. They will be looking over their shoulders in terror for the rest of their lives, and by god they deserve it.

It was on the app @Imdunfer

I’m wondering if I adopted a baby, and if I felt that seeing their foster mum was upsetting for them (as they wouldn’t understand why they were no longer there) and needed to bond with me and not the foster carers, and so tried to stipulate a day / time - that does sound feasible to me. It’s only when you look at it through a lens of abuse it’s abusive, if you see what I mean.

It’s unsurprising she was palmed off and ignored. I know foster carers who were treated disgusting and so disrespectfully by social workers. Some of whom seem to enjoy the power of people they wield.

I have a 14 month old and we’ve had several A&E admissions, and that’s not uncommon amongst our friends. We had three trips to A&E in two months after mine started nursery because he only seems to get scarily high fevers in the evening or on Saturdays. If your baby gets sick after about 2pm when they can squeeze in a GP appointment, or at the weekend 111 will send you to A&E where I am. It’s probably why it’s so squeezed, but every time I’ve been I’ve been told it’s the right thing and they’d rather see a baby they didn’t need to see than potentially miss a baby. Maybe other places have better out of hours services but where I am, going to A&E with an unwell baby is really normal.

I’m not saying that there are things that couldn’t be spotted. I said in my post how alarming it was that the doctor at the fracture clinic thought the broken arm was a normal injury when the prosecution doctors thought the opposite. I said that the SCR will blame lack of professional curiosity which doctors and nurses could have flagged more, but without wanting to make this too political, simply don’t have the time and resource beyond asking about a bruise and accepting a plausible explanation. I’d love that to be different but until things massively change in the NHS to a point where children’s A&E has enough staff, enough beds and enough time, staff will miss things. That’s a consequence of an underfunded NHS. I don’t know as much about social work, but understand CP social workers are also dealing with unmanageable caseloads. I’m not sure what concerns the foster mother raised, and maybe they did cancel a visit with her, but Preston was never hidden from social workers. Preston was a very visible child. It’s easy to say that the doctors and nurses and social workers messed up, because that helps us to think that with better doctors and nurses and social workers the next child like Preston could be saved. But the grim reality of UK’s chronically underfunded public services really shows itself in cases like this. It’s not a few rubbish people who let Preston down, but a crumbling system where there often isn’t time or space to deal with anything but the most urgent matter in front of you.

Plus a huge amount of this case was hidden away. Internal injuries, videos on JV’s phone which social workers wouldn’t have access to, and a lot of these were some of the most serious elements of the case.

Please, write a book. It is needed.

I could start with an AMA suppose see how that goes.

I’m really puzzled by this - it definitely was on the BBC News at Six. I watched with dh in silence, because neither of us could find any words to comment on the horror of the details revealed.

"Professional curiosity" is supposed to be a thing. It means precisely that the professionals such as social workers and medical staff seeing injuired children aren't supposed to just accept adult explanations of such injuries at face value. Especially when it's a child in Preston's circumstances (which is where other elements of the joined up thinking are supposed to come in). Especially when there's been more than one in a short space of time, It also doesn't have to be "proof" that something definitely HAS happened, but a concern that is enough to flag up and it should have been flagged up the line for closer investigation.

I'd be pretty certain that the review will point out that the lack of professional curiosity was a factor in this case And that the focus appears to have been on the welfare of the adults and not who it should have been - Preston, who could not speak for himself.

Edit: Just to add, as anothe poster has, and yes, in reality I suspect chronic underfunding and undermining of services is a factor in this too. But now a child is dead because what should have been happening didn't. If we don't have the resources to do safeguarding properly within the system we do have, then it needs overhauling. Or something massive has to change. I do think, as I've said before, this case is a wake up call.

Those monsters said Preston's arm was broken because he 'twizzled' when they were holding his arm when he was in his cot.

Expert witnesses in the trial said that Preston would have been inconsolable after that kind of injury. These freaks claim they didn't know he was hurt because the baby, who I believe his foster mum said was the worst sleeper she'd cared for, simply gave them a 'cheeky wink' and merrily drifted off to sleep. Why didn't that implausible story ring alarm bells?

There was also two different versions of how Preston's arm was broken. The cot version, and a claim that it was done getting him out of his car seat. But again, no alarm bells ringing.

Hopefully, someone will analyse every single detail of this case objectively and work out what could have been done differently. And ensure that some change will then follow.
Because accepting a system that leaves a child dead in 4 months, killed by adoptive parents having suffered (what is now known) to have been relentless abuse (that nobody investigated properly) before being choked by having a penis forced into his mouth, is just inconceivable.

That is what the serious case review is about. But I suspect it will have wider ramifications because of the public outcry and horror that this has been allowed to happen.