Former teacher guilty of sexually abusing and murdering baby boy he wanted to adopt - CPS

[IwantToRetire]

Distressing content
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A former teacher has been found guilty of sexually abusing and murdering a baby boy that he planned to adopt.

Jamie Varley, 37, was convicted at Preston Crown Court of murder, child cruelty, sexual offences and indecent images relating to 13-month-old Preston Davey.

John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, was convicted of allowing the death of a child, child cruelty and sexual assault.

Varley was in the process of adopting baby Preston (also known as Elijah) with his partner McGowan-Fazakerley. Just four months after being placed with the couple, Preston was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital unconscious and in cardiac arrest. Sadly, Preston could not be saved.

Varley tried falsely claiming that Preston had accidentally drowned in a bath, but prosecutors were able to prove that his injuries were consistent with his airways being obstructed.

The evidence presented by the prosecution proved that in the final months of Preston’s life, he was routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted – suffering more than 40 separate injuries.

CPS statement continues at https://www.cps.gov.uk/north-west/news/former-teacher-guilty-sexually-abusing-and-murdering-baby-boy-he-wanted-adopt

More from a BBC report - also distressing:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyp77l79e9o

I thought there was a thread about this, but cant find one. But sorry if a duplicate.

I really only wanted to post out of respect for this poor baby and the horror of his short life.

RIP

Is that actually true though or is it just an assumption? I mean, I can see why that might be the case, but has it been found to be true in research and does it mean better outcomes for the children?

The case of Masha Allen. She was adopted from Russia by a peadophile. Her adoptive father SA her, distributing the photos and videos online, until she was rescued aged 13. He also starved her to stop her from developing.

This case prompted changes in adoption laws in America.

Meanwhile, 41-year-old Matthew Mancuso, a divorced father in Pennsylvania, was looking for a little girl to adopt. He contacted a New Jersey adoption agency requesting information on 5-year-old Caucasian girls, and chose Masha from a videotape. After months of waiting, Mancuso traveled to Russia to meet his new daughter. He visited Masha several times at the orphanage, took her to nice dinners, and bought her candy.

To Masha, Mr. Mancuso seemed like her knight in shining armor. But nothing could have been farther from the truth. What she didn't know was the adoption agency failed to properly check her new father's background. No phone calls were made to his ex-wife or to his biological daughter.

Her new father turned out to be a diabolical child pornographer who forced Masha to live as his sex slave. Mancuso took hundreds of pornographic pictures of Masha, then posted them on the Internet, where he traded them with other pedophiles. He dressed Masha as a young bride and forced her to pretend they were getting married. He chained Masha in his basement. He starved his adopted daughter to keep her young body from maturing. And, he forced Masha to take showers with him every day.

For five whole years, Masha says, nobody—not a single social worker—came to check on little Masha.

www.oprah.com/oprahshow/meet-masha_1/all

I do not agree with the term 'child pornography'. It's CSAM. But this is an old article.

There seems to be an assumption that adopters all want babies, but many don't.

Those who do are often given short shift by adoption agencies and told to rethink, to be more open to sibling groups, children with additional needs, older children.

Those who only want babies will often walk away from adoption at this stage. Nowadays they can do surrogacy.

But also, those who do keep going for babies often want babies without a horrendous back story. And Preston's birth mother had murdered an old lady when she was 14 and in back to prison several times since. I believe she gave birth in prison.

And that's the part we know about. There could be all sorts in the report. Social services can't divulge it to us.

It could be that the foster carer's experience of Preston as being an easy baby is the full story, or maybe she was particularly skilled with him. But in any case, moving to a new family is highly stressful for a child. He had now lost two mums - birth mum and foster mum. You would expect him to be upset and sleep issues would not be unexpected.

And we don't know what else was going on. Often children's issues don't become apparent until they start to develop.

I dread to think what might have happened to stolen Ukrainian children in Russia.

How awful was his own mother. She had murdered someone, was on drugs and in and out of prison What was she even doing having two kids and expecting her mother to look after them. How many more was she going to try and foist onto her mother.

Was her own mother even suitable to be bringing up children . She had bought up her daughter and look what she ended up doing. Nobody has mentioned that. The daughter she bought up was off the rails at 14.
The whole story from conception to adoption and being murdered is so scummy and vile , why aren't people embarrassed to behave like this . People are so bloody selfish.

The breakdown of the traditional family has got a lot to answer for too. If Preston's mother and father had been married or in a happy relationship this would never have happened.
People shagging around and having babies without being in stable relationships is contributing to the increase in child abuse and murder cases. I can't remember hardly any cases where abuse and murder didnt happen in a household where mum has moved a partner in recently that isn't the baby's father . Often the household has different children with different fathers as well.
How did society and people get so bad. ? Where are the child's rights not to have an unknown and unrelated man move in with them?
Until you can stop all the shagging around, divorce, single parenthood etc it's always going to be a problem.
Put children first .
Sick of hearing about scumbags address that problem
Another thing. Adoption now should be shut down and babies should not be advertised in their website with pictures and names etc . Social workers and doctors who were involved should be held accountable and named and shamed .

RIP Preston. You deserved so much more. Hope Drama queen Varley and his boyfriend never come out in prison and live in fear every day
He looked very unsuitable to adopt without all the abuse and vile stuff he was doing He was a weirdo and also very aggressive and an outright liar. Fancy putting a jury through all that heavy and upsetting stuff when it was obvious you were guilty .

There's no suggestion that Preston was a more difficult to place baby.

That gay and lesbian couples are often more open to adopting harder-to-place children is a separate fact, mentioned as the topic of gay and lesbian adoption in general is being discussed on this thread.

yes it's been found to be true in research.

https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/mar/04/the-lgbt-couples-adopting-hard-to-place-children

https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/same-sex-couples-raise-adoption-chances-for-vulnerable-children-6s6w3ghg58j

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3514879/

I'm not aware of any research about the outcomes for children adopted by gay and lesbian parents, although there is a lot out there about being raised by biological gay and lesbian parents.

Thanks for this. Tbh it doesn't give any facts other than the research I quoted which suggests that LGBT+ parents do as well as anyone else. A few individuals make statements about being more open to difference but there is nothing to actually back it up.

I have to say that nearly everyone I know who adopted (and I know a lot of adopters) also took on "difficult to place" children eg sibling groups, older children, children with additional needs. And only a few of them are LGBT+.

I myself ( and husband) adopted a sibling group where the children were 2 and 3. Both have/had a lot of additional needs.

I actually can't think of anyone who adopted a baby.

I suspect that there is a belief in some quarters that LGBT+ people make particularly good adoptive parents and this has been accepted as fact when actually they are just like everyone else.

These two have recently been told they're facing more charges

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyp0336y6jo

Though they sourced children through surrogates (according to Wikipedia around seven). I don't know (obviously) if they abused their own kids. I suspect if SW were involved it's just as likely, as with Preston's murderers, their wealth and status was a shield to scrutiny.

Record numbers of single men buying babies from surrogates. Numbers are still relatively small. The only article I could find without a paywall was SPUC, so be warned

https://spuc.org.uk/increase-in-single-men-commissioning-babies-through-surrogacy/

There's probably a corresponding increase in single women having babies but they have resources not open to men and will be less likely to use a surrogate.

This case has deeply affected me. I can't stop thinking about that beautiful little boy and what those evil bastards did to him.

There must have been so many good, decent couples who'd have given their right arms to adopt Preston and provide him with a happy, loving home. Instead they were handed over to 2 monsters. Well at least their DEI stats would have looked good.

in every video I've seen of Varley he comes across as immature, melodramatic, selfish, spiteful, obtuse, deceitful and manipulative. How the hell did those 2 get through the rigorous screaming process, or did they make special allowances for them because they were so desperate to allow a gay couple to adopt? It's blatantly obvious both were completely unsuitable to look after a child. During the screening they would have interviewed friends, relatives, colleagues. Surely they must have learnt about their characters and had doubts about their suitability. I heard that the couple moved in together on their first date. I mean if that doesn't show lack of impulse control what does?

I also find it impossible to believe friends and family of these monsters had no idea what was going on. Their mothers looked after Preston. Surely when changing his nappy, bathing him etc they'd have noticed injuries on his little body? Surely they'd have noticed the change in Preston's character and behaviour from when he first was placed. What kind of people are they to either not notice anything was wrong or to notice it but not report it?

I believe all children need a mother and that gay men or straight men shouldn't be allowed to adopt. If that offends woke liberals then so be it The interests of a child must always come before ideology. A child is dead because of woke ideology.

Pretty horrible and concerning that single men can buy a baby who will never even have a replacement mother.

So hundreds of children a year end up spending an entire childhood in care, and you think that’s an acceptable outcome?

I don't know what you mean, could you elaborate?

Not all LGBT+ people want to adopt btw. Surrogacy is increasingly popular. But also, it is all part of a fertility rights issue in the LGBT+ community. Some people think that LGBT+ people should have increased access to adoption and Surrogacy as it is often the only way they can create a family. But others are vehemently against adoption, in this article a gay man describes adoption as "volunteering" and it's not good enough for him - he wants his own biological children.

So you can see how LGBT+ demands to have access to adoption and Surrogacy are becoming entrenched as rights

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/oct/01/how-gay-parenthood-through-surrogacy-became-a-battleground

It’s pretty self explanatory surely?

If gay couples can’t adopt then the c600 children a year adopted by gay couples are going to end up in long term care instead.

Well, I guess if the agencies put as much effort into targeting other groups as they do targetting the LGBT+ community, they could maybe find alternative adopters for these children. Not saying LGBT+ people shouldn't adopt, but it is striking how the community has been the focus of so many agencies. I adopted 25 years ago and for a while there was a big push on single women but I don't think that's seen as a target group these days.

Are you saying that c.600 children each year are adopted by gay couples due to the lack of straight couples available to adopt those children?

You may be surprised to discover yes www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&client=ms-android-samsung-rvo1&source=android-browser&q=how+many+gay+adoptions+uk#lfId=ChxjMe

I can read the thread, thanks.

No,I know, lots of adopters don't want babies. But according to one of his colleagues JV was insistent he wanted a baby and not an older child.

But I can see why Preston's back story may have made him harder to place.

There is a shortage of adopters generally across the board.

Remove 600 adopters a year from the pool and that shortage is going to be larger.

If it were the case that there was a disproportionate focus on recruiting LGBT adopters that might be true but there’s no evidence that that’s the case.

Just watched the vile scum lies, his true, evil bastard face is shown.
What’s really stuck me is the number of bruises on little Preston, he was regularly tortured from the very beginning. Truly shocking.

rest in peace little angel 🤍

I don't see this as a gay vs straight issue.

I see it as a men vs women issue. I think the sexuality part clouds the real issue and that is that it is males regardless of sexuality that are the problem in the main.
(Accuse me of misandry, but please not homophobia because if you do you are missing the point entirely.)

Yes there's obviously been horrific cases involving women, but it's men who do things like this usually.

I understand that in cases where one of two men raising a child if one of them is the bio father that this has a protective effect.

(surrogacy has its own issues of course but that's not the point here).

We accept that stepfathers are more of a risk, why not 2 men who are not biologically related to the child?

This is under feminist chat, so hoping this is not seen as an 'out there' question.

Lesbians raising a child is not something I have an issue with as regards child safety.
In fact I sometimes wonder if a child is safer, as a general rule, with two women.
Please I do mean generally, I know there's exceptional cases.

I've mistakenly replied to @KatrinaWalensky . Sorry. I just don't want to type it all out again.

But there is. This is a link to a journalist quoting from an article in The Telegraph which explains how focused the adoption agency was on targetting the LGBT+ community.

x.com/LPerrins/status/2069009712893276572?s=20