Preston Davey: Mother of tragic baby was jailed as a teenager for murder

Preston Davey: Mother of tragic baby was jailed as a teenager for murder Sarah Davey had some contact with her son and did register his birth - Bookmark Born into the arms of a murderer, little Preston Davey’s life was short and brutal. He was taken from his mother Sarah Davey at five days old by an emergency care order obtained by Oldham Council and put into foster care, where he stayed and thrived, until being adopted by Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley. Preston’s mother had been in and out of jail after being given a mandatory life sentence for murder in July 1999. Ms Davey had some contact with her son and did register his birth. On Preston’s birth certificate, Ms Davey gives her hometown as Oldham and her occupation as hairdresser. The address she gave is the mother and baby unit at women’s prison, HMP Styal. No details are entered for the father. Aged just 14 at the time of the killing, she was ordered to serve a minimum of eight years and one day for the horrific murder of lonely widow, Lily Lilley, 71, in Failsworth, Oldham in September 1998. Davey, along with a 15-year-old friend, Lisa Healey, befriended the frail pensioner, a grandmother of three, at local shops. She invited them into her home for a cup of tea and the pair then brutally tortured Lily by squirting shampoo in her eyes, cutting her with a knife and tying a gag round her mouth so tightly that her dentures were forced down her throat, choking her to death. They then crammed her lifeless body into a bin and, laughing and giggling, walked it through the streets before throwing it in the Rochdale Canal. After the killing they made hundreds of calls from her phone, used her pension money to buy crisps and chocolate and trashed her home. The trial judge, Mr Justice Sachs, described the crime as “unspeakably wicked”. Ms Davey has been released and recalled to prison on three occasions, according to the Parole Board. On the last occasion she was released in August 2021 but recalled to custody on November 2 2021 for an unspecified breach of her terms of release. It is during this period she became pregnant with Preston. Ms Davey, now aged 42, has attended parts of the trial of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley. The terms of her current release from custody, her licence conditions, include good behaviour, to disclose relationships and enhanced drug monitoring. Baby Preston Davey only lived for four months with the defendants before his death. Here is the timeline of the significant events in his short life. 2022 – June 16 Preston Davey is born four weeks early, weighing 5lb 7oz to Sarah Davey at Wythenshawe Hospital, south Manchester. – June 21 Five days later he is placed into emergency care with foster parents by Oldham Council via an interim care order, where he remains for the first nine months of his life. 2023 – January 6 Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley are approved for adoption by Adoption Now, a company providing services to local councils. The company says Preston needs: “Love, affection, safety and stability.” – February 13 They make first visit to see Preston at his foster parent’s home. – April 1 Preston spends his first night at the defendants’ home in Staining Road, Blackpool, and is formally placed under the care of the defendants. – April 6 Varley texts his sister, a baby sleep trainer, saying: “He’s dead meat today. Didn’t sleep last night after 11.30. Up every, one and a half hours.” – May 25 At 11.10am Preston is rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital, floppy and unresponsive, Varley reporting a seizure and breathing difficulties. Nursing staff notice bruising to Preston’s head. A medical report states Preston had “unexplained injuries, inconsistent with a version of events given…” Hospital safeguarding are informed and social services and Lancashire Police called. Following discussion with medical staff the bruises to a baby learning to walk are not regarded as suspicious. – June 30 At around 8.25pm, Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley take Preston to Blackpool Victoria Hospital A&E Department, reporting the child has a rash, diarrhoea, vomiting and high temperature. Medics note bruising to Preston’s head, but staff are shown a home video of the child pulling a toy box on to himself while playing, by way of explanation. Varley comments: “You lot are going to think we have been abusing him or something.” It is later discovered the toy box video was filmed 12 days earlier. – July 6 At 10.36am Varley takes Preston to hospital for third time with injury to his left arm sustained he said while putting him in his cot the previous evening. After X-ray, a cast is applied for a fractured elbow. The child’s social worker, Amy Shepherdson, who had been in contact with the hospital, texted Varley to say: “Just to reassure you they said they had absolutely no concerns. U absolutely did the right thing.” She visits the home and notes Preston had a “very sad face and a little cry”. – July 7 Preston is visited at home by Helen Magee, an independent reviewer from Oldham social services. The same week Varley tells a work colleague he is struggling mentally and having “dark thoughts” about drowning or suffocating Preston. – July 23 Varley takes a series of photos of Preston, stretching over a period of three minutes, 12 seconds. The child, asleep or unconscious, has his head and arms over the top horizontal bar of his cot and his neck resting on it, his body partially suspended and his legs in a “frog-like” position. His tongue is protruding and his lips appear blue. – July 27 At 4.45pm, Varley records a 35-second video on his phone of Preston in “extreme respiratory distress” taking an “agonal gasp” and needing resuscitation. At 6.30pm Preston is rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital in a critical condition, Varley says he found the child submerged in the bath. A team of paramedics, nurses and doctors attempt to resuscitate for 50 minutes but Preston is pronounced dead at 7.18pm. – July 31 Home Office post-mortem examination concludes Preston’s cause of death as acute upper airway obstruction and rules out drowning. The autopsy also found around 40 external and internal injuries including bruises to Preston’s forehead, throat, mouth, bladder, bottom and bleeding in the lungs with some evidence of “forcible penetration” to the child’s “abnormal” anatomy regarded as clinical signs of sexual abuse. 2026 – April 20 Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley go on trial denying all offences. – June 15 Varley was found guilty of murder, 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 was found guilty of allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.