Baby taken in by gay couple died after torture and sexual abuse, court told
A 13-month-old baby was “routinely physically and sexually abused” by his proposed adoptive gay parents before being murdered by one of them, a court has heard. Preston Davey was placed with Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley in April 2023 when he was nine months old. Less than four months later, he was taken to A&E in a state of cardiac arrest and pronounced dead a short time later. A jury at Preston Crown Court was told the cause of death had been an obstruction to his airway, either by smothering or having something placed in his mouth that prevented him from breathing. Mr Varley, a former high school teacher, is accused of murdering Preston at their home in Blackpool on July 27, 2023. He is also accused of sexual assault, cruelty, grievous bodily harm, assault by penetration, taking indecent images of a child and distributing an indecent image. Mr McGowan-Fazakerley, his partner and co-accused, was not at home when Preston was allegedly killed. He is charged with allowing the death of a child, cruelty to …
