Teacher accused of abusing and murdering adopted baby told mum 'I'm going to hell'

A teacher accused of sexually abusing and murdering his adopted baby told his mother "I'm going to hell", a court heard.

Jamie Varley, 37, is accused of killing 13-month-old Preston Davey, and faces 25 further charges of sexually and physically mistreating the child.

His partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, is also accused of sexual assault, of causing or allowing the death of the child, and four other offences.

Both men, from Blackpool, deny all charges.

Preston Crown Court previously heard that Varley rushed the child to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, unconscious in his arms, after an alleged final sexual assault on 27 July 2023.

On Wednesday, jurors were told that medics worked for nearly an hour to resuscitate the child until it was decided that further intervention was futile. Davey was pronounced dead at 7.20pm.

The court was then shown footage of Varley and his mother, Karen Graham, in the hospital's bereavement room, where he was described as "hysterical" as medics asked him to come to the child's bedside.

He was heard saying: "It's my fault, I left him for literally two minutes. It's my fault... I can't, this is not happening. Please kill me."

Jurors were also shown footage of Varley outside the hospital entrance, minutes after Preston had been declared dead, and footage of McGowan-Fazakerley and Varley's mother inside the bereavement room.

The final clip shown to the court showed Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley in the room just after 11pm. Varley is cradling the child, and McGowan-Fazakerley says: "It's going to be the hardest thing...we've got each other."

Varley is also told not to blame himself, and the death is a "tragic accident", before he responds: "I probably won't see you again. I'm definitely going to hell."

The 37-year-old then said: "They'll be whisking me away for neglect."

Read more from Sky News:
Landfill theory for deadly virus outbreak
Teen who threatened school shooting jailed

Preston was born on 16 June 2022, immediately taken into care by Oldham Council, and placed with foster parents at five days old.

After undergoing an assessment and familiarisation process in early 2023, he was adopted and began living with the defendants on 1 April at their home.

The court heard on Tuesday that Varley told medics they left the baby in the bath alone on the day of the incident, and came back minutes later to discover him drowning.

Senior anaesthetist Dr Wendy Aubrey told the court she did not see any water in the child's mouth or airways. A post-mortem examination was said to have identified 40 injuries on Preston's body.

Varley, who was a high school teacher at the time, denies murder, manslaughter, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault of a child, 13 counts of taking indecent photos or videos of a child, one of distributing an indecent photo of a child, to his co-accused, and one of making an indecent photo.

McGowan-Fazakerley denies allowing the death of a child, three counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.

The trial was adjourned until Thursday morning.

(c) Sky News 2026: Teacher accused of abusing and murdering adopted baby told mum 'I'm going to hell'