Teacher accused of sexual abuse and murder of adopted baby denies making up ‘drowning’ story

May 22, 2026 · 4:14 PM UTC ·5 min read · 0 reactions · 0 comments · 34 views

TL;DR · WeSearch summary

Jamie Varley, a teacher accused of the sexual abuse and murder of his adopted baby, denies fabricating a drowning story. The child, Preston Davey, died at 13 months old, and a pathologist found evidence of severe abuse rather than drowning. Varley and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, both deny the charges against them.

Key facts

▪Jamie Varley claims he left the child in the bath for only a couple of minutes before finding him submerged.
▪A Home Office pathologist ruled out drowning and identified 40 traumatic injuries consistent with abuse.
▪Varley stated that he feels they have not been given time to grieve and believes the allegations against them are false.

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The Independent (UK) publishes from United Kingdom and files mainly under news. We currently carry 922 of its stories.

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Record

Original publisher	The Independent
Canonical URL	https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/preston-davey-jamie-varley-john-mcgowann-fazakerley-blackpool-b2982125.html
Publication time	Fri, 22 May 2026 16:14:19 GMT
Retrieval time	2026-05-22T16:22:02.432Z
Last seen	2026-05-22T16:22:02.432Z
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Excerpt source	publisher body
Excerpt method	First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited.
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Citation coverage	Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL.
Cluster	I4AZJBIsFb2e
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Ranking reason	Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking.
Publisher visit	Yes — open original
Substitutes article?	No — link-out required for full text

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WeSearch handling by dimension

Indexing	May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)?	Allowed
Snippet	May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown?	Allowed
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand

NewsUKCrimeTeacher accused of sexual abuse and murder of adopted baby denies making up ‘drowning’ storyJamie Varley was questioned about the day 13-month-old Preston Davey died in 2023Pat Hurst Friday 22 May 2026 17:14 BSTBookmarkBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popover{"translations":{"comments":"Go to comments","share":"Share","copyLink":"Copy link","bookmark":"Bookmark","removeBookmark":"Remove bookmark"},"showComments":false,"showBookmark":true,"articleId":"b2982125","articleMeta":{"url":"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/preston-davey-jamie-varley-john-mcgowann-fazakerley-blackpool-b2982125.html","title":"Teacher accused of murdering adopted baby denies making up ‘drowning’ story"}}open image in gallery{"id":"trigger-autogallery-57862","index":0}Preston Davey…

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