Adoptive father jailed for murdering toddler Preston Davey after abuse

Jamie Varley’s whole life order has settled the criminal punishment in Preston Davey’s death, but it has sharpened the question at the heart of this case: how did repeated signs of danger fail to protect a baby who had been described as healthy and happy in his foster home? Preston Elijah Davey died on 27 July 2023 after months of sexual and physical abuse in the care of Varley and his partner, John McGowan-Fazackerley, and the case has now become a test of whether child protection systems can recognise risk before it becomes fatal.

Preston was born at Wythenshawe Hospital on 16 June 2022 and placed into emergency foster care five days later, on 21 June 2022. An adoption panel approved his adoption by Varley and McGowan-Fazackerley on 23 March 2023, and he spent his first night with them on 31 March 2023. Lancashire Police say the offences against him took place over the next four months, before his death in July, while he was in their care.

At Preston Crown Court, Varley was found guilty after a seven-week trial of murdering and sexually abusing Preston, seriously assaulting him on an earlier occasion, five counts of child cruelty, and possessing and distributing indecent images of a child. McGowan-Fazackerley was found guilty of causing or allowing a child’s death, two child cruelty offences and a sexual assault. Varley, a former schoolteacher, received a whole life order on 18 June 2026, meaning he will spend the rest of his life in prison, while McGowan-Fazackerley was jailed for 25 years.

The case is now moving beyond the courtroom and into an institutional review that will probe what went wrong. Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, said the case was “a failure of the state and the safeguarding system” and said Preston’s murder may have been preventable. She wants a Child Protection Authority and a Single Unique Identifier brought in without delay, reforms aimed at forcing agencies to see the same child across health, policing and social care records.

Those reforms are being pressed against a grim record of missed opportunities. De Souza said Preston had been taken to A&E multiple times, police had been called and a social worker visited. Lancashire Police also say the first indecent images and videos of Preston were taken on 23 and 25 April 2023, bruising to his head was seen in a video recovered later, and on 11 May 2023 McGowan-Fazackerley made a 999 call that was abandoned after four seconds before a later 111 call about Preston’s breathing problems and inability to hold his head properly. Oldham Council says an independent Child Safeguarding Practice Review is already underway, with the Oldham Safeguarding Children Partnership due to reconvene it after the criminal trial, while the national child safeguarding practice review panel will work with the local review to decide whether a national inquiry is needed. A petition for “Preston’s Law,” backed by more than 1,000 signatories, has added to the pressure for changes that match the scale of the breakdown.