The boyfriend of a teacher accused of sexually abusing and murdering a baby boy they were trying to adopt told police he felt like he was in a soap opera when he collapsed and died at hospital.
John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, returned home from work in July 2023 to find his partner Jamie Varley, 37, ‘panicking’ because 13-month-old Preston Davey was vomiting.
Moments later, the sales representative claimed the tot went ‘limp’ and became ‘unresponsive’ so the couple rushed him to Blackpool Victoria Hospital nearby.
Preston Crown Court has been told that, by the time they arrived, he wasn’t breathing and was in cardiac arrest.
Doctors desperately fought for almost an hour to resuscitate Preston but he could not be saved. He was pronounced dead around 7.20pm.
Today jurors at Preston Crown Court were shown video interviews of detectives questioning McGowan-Fazakerley, who is accused of child cruelty, sexual assault and allowing or causing the death of Preston, that took place almost two years later, in June 2025.
Asked what happened when they arrived at A&E, McGowan-Fazakerley said: ‘It was hell… the whole thing felt like I was in a soap (opera).
‘Jae was running around like a headless chicken, it was horrendous. He was saying it was all his fault.
Preston Davey pictured by his adoptive father, Jamie Varley, 37, the morning after his first sleep over at his new adopted ‘daddies’ home. Varley is accused of sexually abusing and murdering Preston
Former secondary school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, denies a total of 25 charges
Varley’s partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, has pleaded not guilty to five charges
‘He was screaming and shouting and running around and the nurses were trying to help him…I just went into shock.’
Varley told police that he had been bathing Preston but nipped away momentarily and returned to find the infant face down in the water.
But the jury has been told that Preston did not drown and expert pathologist Dr Alison Armour, who carried out a post-mortem, instead concluded he died of an ‘acute upper airway obstruction’.
She has given evidence that the infant had internal injuries, including a large bruise to the back of his throat, consistent with sexual abuse.
Later, McGowan-Fazakerley broke down in tears in the dock as he listened to himself telling detectives that adopting Preston was ‘everything’ the couple, who got together in 2019, had ‘ever, ever wanted’.
The court has heard they underwent a ‘robust’ vetting process before Preston was placed in their care in April 2023.
McGowan-Fazakerley added: ‘He (Preston) was just so, so perfect.’
He said social workers didn’t want to show prospective parents Preston’s photograph because he was so cute. They wanted them to fall in love with his character, not his picture, he said.
Preston Davey died after suffering abuse and was found to have 40 injuries, a jury was told
McGowan-Fazakerley, who is an only child, admitted he struggled to adapt to having a new baby, but claimed Varley, who has several siblings, nieces and nephews, ‘instinctively’ knew what to do.
‘His instinct was there,’ he said. ‘I used to say (to Varley), “you know what Preston needs before he even tells you”, he just had it.’
Varley, who taught textiles and was head of Year 11 at a comprehensive school in the Lancashire seaside resort, 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.
The trial continues.
