Baby ‘sexually abused and murdered by adopted dad had human bite mark on body’
A baby allegedly sexually abused and murdered by his adopted dad had a bite mark on his bottom weeks before he died, a court heard.
Jamie Varley, 37, is on trial over the death of 13-month-old Preston Davey on July 27, 2023. Preston had been placed with Varley and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, at their home in Blackpool aged nine months with a view to him being formally adopted. But jurors at Preston Crown Court have been told the toddler was routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted, suffering dozens of injuries in the final four months of his life.
On Wednesday, Home Office pathologist Dr Alison Armour was shown several photos and videos of the toddler found on the couple’s phones. In one image taken on June 12, 2023, Preston was standing naked in a garden paddling pool. Asked to comment on a darker shade of skin on his right buttock, Dr Armour said: ‘It is my view, sir, it most likely represents a human bite mark.’ She said having looked at the photo, the mark on his body was a round, circular bruise, turning slightly purple and around 3.5cm in diameter.
Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, asked Dr Armour why she thought it was a bite mark. ‘The size, configuration, which means the shape, are all consistent with a human bite mark,’ she said.
Dr Armour was also asked her opinion on a series of seven photos recovered from Varley’s phone of Preston in his cot, along with two toy teddy bears, taken four days before his death. The images span a period of three minutes and 12 seconds, during which time Preston’s head and arms remain ‘slumped’ over the top horizontal bar of his cot with his neck resting on the bar. His body is apparently partially suspended, his legs in a ‘frog-like’ position and the child seemingly asleep or unconscious.
‘This is very unsafe and in my view dangerous,’ Dr Armour said. Mr Wright continued: ‘What is the risk here presented?’ Dr Armour said: ‘Partial suspension, ultimately leading to death, he’s got his neck in contact with that cot railing. That’s going to inhibit your ability to breathe.’ In one photo, Preston’s head is in a slightly different position with fluid coming from his mouth. Dr Armour continued: ‘Preston’s tongue is protruding, its blue and also his lips appear blue, consistent with a lack of oxygen in the blood.’ Mr Wright said: ‘In terms of a child in that position for that length of time, how safe or otherwise is such a position?’ Dr Armour said: ‘This is a very prolonged period of time for a child to be in such an unsafe position.’
Four days later, at around 6.20pm on July 27, 2023, the defendants rushed Preston unconscious from their home to Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Medics worked for nearly an hour to resuscitate the child but could not save him. Varley said he had left the child alone in the bath for three or four minutes before he returned and the baby was partially submerged. Dr Armour, who carried out the post-mortem examination at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, said people who drown often swallow water but she found no water in Preston’s stomach. She added: ‘It is my position that drowning can be reasonably excluded as the cause of death in this case.’
Dr Armour concluded the cause of death was an upper airway obstruction, leading to Preston’s collapse by a deliberate act of smothering, or an object or objects inserted into his mouth. The post-mortem examination also found external and internal injuries including bruises to Preston’s forehead, throat, mouth, bladder, bottom and bleeding in the lungs. These were mostly ‘non-accidental’, she said, and could not be explained by the attempts by medics to save his life during resuscitation on hospital admission. Many of the external injuries Dr Armour described as ‘fingertip’ bruises, consistent with gripping, prodding, poking and pinching, she said.
Preston also had severe bruising to the back of his throat which Dr Armour described as one of the ‘most unusual’ injuries she had never come across in her 39-year career as a consultant forensic pathologist. ‘This is an extensive bruise,’ she said. Dr Armour said the underlying cause is ‘difficult to ascertain’. Smothering ‘either by a hand or a soft object’ could be the cause, she said, but that ‘would be unusual’. She added: ‘That leaves the other cause, in my view – the insertion of an object into the mouth occluding the airways.’ Dr Armour told jurors there were no injuries to Preston’s teeth, tongue, palate or cheeks, indicating the object did not have any ‘sharp edges’. Asked if the injury was consistent with a sexual assault, she replied: ‘I cannot exclude that, sir.’ Dr Armour said the injuries to Preston’s throat, along with other serious injuries found on his body, were ‘very recent’. Asked how close to death they were inflicted, she added: ‘I think I have said a matter of hours.’
Varley 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 continues on Thursday.
