A man originally from Congleton was jailed for 25 years on Thursday for his part in the death of a baby murdered by his partner.
Sales manager John McGowan-Fazakerley, (32), had earlier been found guilty of causing or allowing a child’s death, two child cruelty offences and a single sexual assault.
In addition to murder, his partner Jamie Varley, a 36-year-old teacher, was also found guilty of seriously assaulting Preston Davey as well as five counts of child cruelty and possessing and distributing indecent images of a child, all related to Preston.
Varley was sentenced to a whole life order and will never be released.
During their trial at Preston Crown Court the jury heard how an adoption panel approved the adoption of Preston by Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley within a year of his birth in 2022 and he began living at their home in Blackpool.
The court heard how it was during the four-month period before Preston’s death on 27th July 2023, and while he was in the care of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley, that all the criminal offences against him took place.
Within weeks of 13-month-old Preston being placed into the defendants’ care, Varley sent messages to a friend describing how he found him annoying and other friends that he was struggling to cope.
Indecent images and videos of Preston were recovered from Varley’s phone after his arrest.
Varley took more indecent images and an indecent video of Preston.
The indecent video was shared with McGowan-Fazakerley via Snapchat.
The court heard that in May 2023 McGowan-Fazakerley made a 999 call to the emergency services but this call was abandoned after four seconds.
When police re-called the number, a male answered and stated that he had called 999 in error and had meant to call the non-emergency number of 111.
McGowan-Fazakerley also called 111 from Varley’s parents’ house, stating that Preston had breathing problems and an inability to hold his head properly.
An out-of-hours call within two hours was arranged, but they never sought medical attention for Preston.
The following day, neither McGowan-Fazakerley nor Varley mentioned any health problems to the health visitor.
The court heard that separate images were taken by Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley in June 2023 on Preston’s first birthday, which indicated Preston had been the victim of physical cruelty.
In July 2023, Preston was the victim of a sexual assault at the hands of both Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley.
Evidence of this assault was recovered from Varley’s mobile phone and from Preston’s cot.
A Home Office post-mortem examination established that Preston had suffered 40 traumatic injuries over the course of the time he had been in Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley’s care.
The jury took just over two days to unanimously find both defendants guilty on all counts last Monday.
After the guilty verdicts, Det Cons Ins Andy Fallows, from Lancashire Police’s major investigation team, said: “It is not often in this job that you encounter pure evil. Anybody who has followed this trial will no doubt understand why I place Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley in that category.
“Almost from day one, they set about abusing Preston and making his short life a harrowing tale of misery and pain. It was this abuse that ultimately led to Preston’s death.
“For the first nine months of his life Preston was a happy and healthy child but by the end he was a broken shell. This was due to the sordid and wicked acts of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley.”
The “Liverpool Echo” reported that McGowan-Fazakerley grew up in Congleton and attended The King’s School in Macclesfield.
It reported that after passing A-levels, he went to Nottingham Trent University, spending his second year on a study abroad scheme, at Murdoch University, Australia, before transferring to Keele University, studying history and politics.
The “Echo” reported that after his degree, he did a master’s in politics, diplomatic studies and international relations and began a PhD, also teaching undergraduates at Keele and working as a campus bar manager.
He gave up studying to start work in financial sales. He was promoted to northern sales manager in 2022 and worked in Salford Quays.
