This is the moment a teacher who allegedly sexually abused and killed a baby boy he was adopting threatened to ‘fight police till the day I die’ after they accused him of murder.
Jamie Varley, 37, made the comment to a female officer interviewing him following the death of Preston Davey, 13 months.
After she explains that an expert pathologist has concluded that Preston had been sexually abused and smothered, the former comprehensive school head of year insists: ‘I haven’t done it.’
She responds: ‘Well, I’ll make the suggestion that you’ve killed him, Jamie,’ before he replies: ‘You make that suggestion, and I’ll fight you till the day I die.’
Pointing at the officer, a clearly agitated and upset Varley adds: ‘One day you guys will be in trouble, because you are absolutely wrong. I don’t know how I’m going to prove it, but you are wrong because I have not done it.’
Varley and his boyfriend, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, are on trial accused of ‘routinely’ ill-treating, sexually abusing and physically assaulting Preston over a period of four months between April and July 2023. He was placed with them after being removed from his birth mother and taken into care at just five days old.
Varley, a textiles teacher who was known as Jae, is also charged with murder, while McGowan-Fazakerley, a sales representative, is accused of allowing Preston’s death. Both men deny the charges.
The video interviews were shown to a jury at Preston Crown Court last week but released publicly today.
Preston Davey pictured by his adoptive father, Jamie Varley, 37, the morning after his first sleep over at his new ‘daddies’ home. Varley is accused of sexually abusing and murdering Preston
Jamie Varley, 37, was interviewed by police about Preston’s death in June 2025
He became agitated and pointed at the female police officer interviewing him when she accused him of sex abuse and murder
Varley’s partner John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, has pleaded not guilty to five charges
Preston was not breathing and in cardiac arrest when the couple rushed him to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on the evening of July 27, 2023.
Varley claimed he had been bathing the infant, but nipped away to get changed and returned to find him face down in the water.
However, forensic pathologist Dr Alison Armour told the jury that there was no evidence Preston drowned.
Instead she concluded he died of an ‘acute upper airway obstruction,’ either by a deliberate act of smothering or by having an object inserted into his mouth.
She found 20 external bruises on Preston’s head and body, but also serious internal injuries, including bruising to the back of his throat and bladder, consistent with sexual assault, she said.
In the clip, the detective tells Varley that it is the pathologist’s belief that Preston had been sexually abused shortly before his death.
‘Bull****,’ Varley replies.
‘You are absolutely wrong.’
Asked to explain Preston’s bruising, he responds: ‘No comment.’
He repeatedly denies causing any of Preston’s bruises and injuries, saying they were accidental and he has ‘no idea’ how he got them.
He also tells police he ‘didn’t believe’ the infant had that many bruises or that the pathologist’s report is ‘accurate’.
Earlier, the officer also shows Varley a series of images and videos found on his mobile phone, which she says are evidence of alleged cruelty or indecency.
They include one video lasting 14 minutes and 31 seconds where a ‘whimpering’ Preston is left alone in a bath.
Dr Alison Armour found bruises and serious internal injuries on Preston’s body, which she said were consistent with sexual assault
Preston Davey died after suffering abuse and was found to have 40 injuries, a jury was told
A court sketch of Jamie Varley (left) and his partner John McGowan-Fazakerley (right)
Varley claimed he had set his phone up to record in the bathroom but remained close by, on the landing out of sight, ‘to see how he (Preston) reacts to his own company’.
The officer says: ‘He’s slipped, whimpering, I would describe him as distressed. Why not go to comfort him?
‘Have you left him in the bath because you are fed up with him?’
Varley replies: ‘I was keeping an eye on him. He’s not distressed. There was no intent to hurt him.’
When asked about videos and pictures he’d taken of Preston playing naked on his playmat, in a paddling pool and in the bath, that were also found on his phone, Varley responds: ‘Unlike you, I don’t think about his genitals 24/7.
‘You are making a mountain out of a molehill. It’s totally innocent, it’s ridiculous. You have got it now as if I’m a bloody pervert.
‘That’s your job I guess.’
Varley, who was head of Year 11 at South Shore Academy, in Blackpool, Lancashire, 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.
