Teacher 'had dark thoughts about abused baby'

A former high school teacher accused of the sexual abuse and murder of an adopted baby boy told a friend he had "dark thoughts" about the child, a court has heard.

Jamie Varley, 37, is accused of the murder of 13-month-old Preston Davey, along with 25 other charges relating to his sexual and physical mistreatment.

His partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, is accused of causing or allowing the death of the child and four other offences including sexual assault and cruelty.

Both men deny all charges, said to have been committed between March and 27 July 2023.

In the just under four months the child was in their care, he had been routinely ill-treated, had indecent images and videos taken of him, was sexually abused and physically assaulted, and suffered 40 traumatic injuries, Preston Crown Court has heard.

On the second day of the trial, which is predicted to last up to six weeks, Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, told the jury that Varley, who had worked as a head of year at a high school in Blackpool, had visited a work colleague with the baby.

During the visit, a month before the child's death, Varley had "unburdened" himself about not "bonding" with Preston and struggling with the demands of looking after a baby.

This included having "dark thoughts" towards the child, who he had renamed Elijah, during the adoption process, Wright told the jury.

"He disclosed to her that he had harmful thoughts towards Elijah and had thoughts of drowning him or of suffocating him but that he would never carry them out," Wright said.

Varley told the woman he had disclosed this as part of welfare checks involving his employer and social workers involved in the adoption of Preston.

It was only after the child's death that the former work colleague approached police with the information, the court heard.

Preston was born on 16 June 2022 and taken into care by Oldham Council before being placed with foster parents.

The defendants had applied to Adoption Now, an organisation that handles adoption for local authorities in north-west England.

They were approved for adoption and, aged nine months in April 2023, Preston was placed with the defendants for them to adopt, living at their home on Staining Road, Blackpool.

But he was admitted to hospital with injuries three times in just under four months after being adopted, before his death on 27 July 2023.

On that day, while Varley was home alone with Preston he recorded a video of the child on his phone.

The child, wearing a babygrow and lying on a double bed, appears to have suffered a collapse and is in recovery from a period of not breathing.

His lips had a bluish hue, which a consultant concluded was the tell-tale sign of a respiratory failure.

Varley remains silent through the video clip and did not try to get any help or assist the child, the jury was told.

Less than two hours later, at about 18:30 BST, shortly after McGowan-Fazakerley returned to the house from work, the defendants brought Preston to the Accident and Emergency Department of Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

He was unconscious and in a state of cardiac arrest and medics could not revive him.

Varley claimed he had put the child in a baby chair in the bath, then left him for about four minutes and when he returned the child was drowning.

Varley was "hysterical" and blaming himself for what had happened, but this was all a "cover-up" act, Wright said.

Preston was in fact dry, had dry hair and did not appear to have swallowed any water.

A Home Office post-mortem examination found a series of non-accidental, internal and external injuries, the court heard.

There were bruises and grazes to his head, face and mouth, upper limbs, chest, back and left thigh.

Preston also had injuries to his mouth, throat and bottom.

There was no evidence to support natural disease or drowning as the cause of death and the internal injuries were caused shortly before death.

The post-mortem gave the cause of his death to be acute upper airways obstruction, a result either of a smothering most likely with a hand or soft fabric or by the insertion of an object or objects into his mouth.

Wright told jurors both defendants had a "sexual interest" in the child and while Varley is accused of being responsible for the murder, his co-accused could and should have protected the child and stopped the sexual assaults and cruelty which were becoming increasingly serious.

Varley denies murder, manslaughter, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault of a child, 13 counts of taking indecent photos or videos of a child, one of distributing an indecent photo of a child to his co-accused, and one of making an indecent photo.

McGowan-Fazakerley denies allowing the death of a child, three counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer