A teacher told a work colleague he was having ‘harmful thoughts’ about suffocating a baby boy he had adopted just weeks before he allegedly murdered him.
Teacher's Disturbing Confession
Janet Gee said Jamie Varley, 37, turned up unannounced at her home, looking ‘distressed and agitated’ towards the end of June 2023. The design and technology teacher told her that he was ‘struggling’ to look after his son, Preston Davey, then 12 months, who he had adopted with his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, because the baby wasn’t sleeping well at night.
‘He told me he was having harmful thoughts towards the baby, in regards to possibly drowning and suffocation,’ Mrs Gee said.
Preston Crown Court has been told that Preston died on July 27, 2023, four months after being placed in the couple’s care. He had allegedly been systematically sexually abused and smothered.
Mrs Gee, who worked with Varley at South Shore Academy, in Blackpool, said he ‘quickly’ reassured her he would ‘never act’ on such thoughts. ‘I believed him,’ Mrs Gee added. ‘I said it was quite natural for parents who have little children - sleep deprivation is a real thing and sometimes the mind wanders into a place where you don’t want it to be. I didn’t believe it was something he would want to carry out.’
Colleague's Reaction and Aftermath
Mrs Gee, who worked as part of the high school’s pastoral team, said she already knew the headteacher had been carrying out home visits to see Varley over concerns for his well-being and he reassured her he’d disclosed his worrying thoughts to the school leader. Asked if she told anyone else about what Varley had told her, Mrs Gee said: ‘I didn’t do anything about it because I believed it was already being dealt with.’ However, after Preston died she went to the police.
Mrs Gee, who admitted she was ‘very close friends’ with Varley, broke down in the witness box as she recounted how she was on holiday when Preston died so didn’t find out for 10 days. She said by then Varley had been arrested for neglect and when she telephoned him on her return to find out what had happened, the first thing he said to her was: ‘Jan, I didn’t do anything.’
Mrs Gee said that she and Varley had done their safeguarding training together and had been ‘safeguarding leads’ at the school for ten years. She said later Varley confided in her that police had quizzed him about alleged indecent images and inappropriate videos found on his mobile phone, including one of Preston’s bottom, another he had shared with McGowan-Fazakerley of the baby’s genitals with the caption ‘that’s our boy,’ and another of himself and Preston both naked in the bath. Some of these images were shown to the jury today, together with a video of Varley laughing as the baby boy stared at his adopted father's genitals.
Mrs Gee said Varley tried to explain to her that a hospital doctor had asked him to send a picture of Preston’s bottom ‘for investigation.’ She also claimed Varley told her that extracts of his DNA, which were found on Preston on the day he died, must have been transferred because they had shared a towel.
Prosecution's Case
Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, said Preston was a ‘happy and healthy’ child when he was placed with the defendants but over the course of four months he was ‘routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted’. The infant was taken to hospital by the pair on three separate occasions before he died, including once with a fractured arm. But each time the couple explained away suspicious bruises to doctors, who failed to raise any safeguarding concerns.
Mrs Gee, however, said Varley also gave her inconsistent accounts of what happened to cause the break – first telling her he had ‘accidentally dropped’ Preston, then later telling her his arm had got caught in the bars of his cot.
The court heard that, on the evening of July 27, 2023, McGowan-Fazakerley came home from work to find Varley trying to resuscitate Preston and ‘panicking.’ They drove the baby, who was in cardiac arrest, to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, but he could not be saved.
Post-Mortem Findings
A post-mortem found the tot had suffered 40 internal and external injuries – including severe bruising to the back of his throat. A pathologist concluded he had been smothered and had died of an ‘acute upper airway obstruction.’ Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were arrested and Varley told officers he had been bathing Preston when he nipped away for a short time and returned to find him drowning. But Mr Wright said the pathology evidence did not support that version of events and it was the prosecution case that, earlier that day, Preston had been subjected to two serious sexual assaults by Varley which caused his death.
Charges and Trial
Varley denies murder, sexual assault, assault by penetration, inflicting GBH, four counts of child cruelty, 14 counts of making and taking indecent images of a child, and one charge of distributing an indecent image of a child. McGowan-Fazakerley, a sales rep, denies causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of child cruelty. The pair face two further joint charges of sexual assault and child cruelty. The trial, expected to last six to eight weeks, continues.
