Teacher who murdered adopted baby bought £450,000 home weeks after child’s death

A teacher who murdered his adopted baby son bought a £450,000 new-build home with his boyfriend to reinvent themselves just 22 days after the tot’s death.

Jamie Varley, 37, and John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, moved into their new detached property in the Lancashire village of Grimsargh weeks after innocent 13-month-old Preston Davey died.

The Daily Mail reports the couple completed the purchase of the five bedroom house – 10 Chandlers Way – for £449,995 on August 18, 2023.

This was despite both men having already been arrested as part of a major investigation into Preston’s death.

His short life was brutally cut short in July 2023 when sicko Varley smothered him to death at the couple’s Blackpool home.

Baby Preston died on July 27, 2023, a mere few weeks before the couple moved into the swanky new build in Grimsargh.

Preston had endured months of sickening physical, sexual and emotional abuse while living with the pair, prosecutors said.

Former secondary school teacher Varley initially claimed the youngster had accidentally drowned in a bath. 

However, a post-mortem examination found Preston had suffered around 40 traumatic injuries.

In the hours after Preston’s death, Varley was arrested on suspicion of child cruelty, murder and sexual abuse of a child under 13. 

McGowan-Fazakerley, a sales manager for a finance company, was arrested on suspicion of causing and allowing the death of a child and neglect.

Despite being at the centre of the murder probe, the pair went ahead with the purchase of the new-build property and later moved into the home.

One neighbour told the Daily Mail that the house the sick couple lived in was well known due to the decorations they put out every Christmas,Easter and Halloween.

Chillingly the woman explained how the men had a cardboard Easter bunny on the lawn with a hole in the top for children to put their head through and pose for pictures.

They also filled their drive with Easter eggs.

The case continued to unfold over the following months before police executed a warrant at the address on June 13 last year.

Varley was then charged with Preston’s murder as well as a series of child cruelty and sexual offences. 

McGowan-Fazakerley was charged with allowing the death of a child, child cruelty and sexual offences.

Following a trial lasting more than seven weeks at Preston Crown Court, jurors deliberated for 13 hours before returning guilty verdicts.

Varley, who had been head of Year 11 at South Shore Academy in Blackpool, was convicted of murder, assault by penetration, sexual assault, causing grievous bodily harm and cruelty. 

He was also found guilty of 14 counts of making or taking an indecent image and one count of sharing an indecent image.

McGowan-Fazakerley was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child, cruelty and sexual assault.

Prosecutor Peter Wright KC described the case as one of the “most shocking and horrific” prosecutors had encountered.

He added that Preston had been subjected to “a litany of psychological and sexual ill-treatment”.

On Thursday, Varley was sentenced to a whole life order for Preston’s murder. 

McGowan-Fazakerley was jailed for 25 years.

Now in prison, Varley has been listed as a jail “escape risk” after guards uncovered a plot to flee custody.

The sicko now has to wear a yellow and green jumpsuit while his movement behind bars is restricted.

But the fiend is being held at a “cushy” Category B Preston Prison, Lancs, where he is shockingly treated as an “enhanced” inmate, the highest of three privilege levels.

Varley, 37 – sentenced on Thursday after a harrowing case at Preston Crown Court – gets £33 per week to spend on canteen treats, a 24-hour per day Freeview TV and DVD package plus access to gyms and workshops.

But the ex-teacher fears being switched to a high-security jail and has bleated: “I will end up like Ian Watkins”.

Lostprophets paedo Watkins, 48, was savegely killed at Category A Wakefield Prison, West Yorks last October – one of the jails where Varley could be transferred.

Once in the couple’s care, Preston was taken to hospital three times – once with a fractured left elbow.

It has now emerged there were eight missed chances to save the tot before he was killed.

On one occasion, a hospital safeguarding team expressed their fears to Lancashire Constabulary but the matter was closed when a consultant said there was nothing to worry about.

Social workers also visited the couple and Preston at home several times before his death but failed to notice he was being abused.

The court was told Varley’s sexual interest in Preston was evident “within weeks” of his placement and that the teacher treated him as a “plaything”.

One harrowing video showed the teacher startling distressed Preston awake by yelling “boo”.

McGowan-Fazakerley “shared” his depraved interest, which was shown in indecent images and videos taken of the baby.

Police recovered a series of harrowing photos of Preston taken over a period of three minutes 12 seconds while he was being sexually assaulted.

Four days later in July 2023, Varley recorded another video of Preston in extreme distress, hardly breathing and taking “agonal breaths” as he lay dying.

Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were later captured on CCTV rushing the “floppy” tot to A&E while Varley begged: “Don’t let him die. Please don’t let him die.”

The “hysterical” dad claimed he had left the baby in the bath while he had a shower and returned three to four minutes later to find him unresponsive.

In reality, the brute had sexually abused Preston before smothering the tot with his hand, fabric or by inserting an object into his mouth.

Medics worked for nearly an hour to resuscitate the baby until an agonising decision was made that further intervention was futile

Varley then tried to give chest compressions and mouth to mouth resuscitation to Preston, despite the breathing tube being still in place.

When told by doctors that Preston could not be saved, Varley pleaded with them to “kill me” and wailed loudly: “It’s all my fault”.

The teacher, who was wearing a red Jurassic Park T-shirt and tartan pyjama bottoms, was filmed sobbing loudly on the hospital floor.

Nurses and police could be seen trying to comfort Varley as he cried: “I can’t, no, I have done this”.

When one of the hospital staff told him that Preston needs him, he replied: “He doesn’t need me, it’s my fault…please get my mum…this is not happening…please kill me, please kill me.”