Moment twisted Preston Davey killer Jamie Varley tells police: 'I will fight you to the day I die'

Moment twisted Preston Davey killer Jamie Varley tells police: 'I will fight you to the day I die' WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT A video released by police following the conviction of Jamie Varley captures the 'manipulative' baby killer resisting investigator's conclusions A chilling new video has captured the moment Jamie Varley told police he would fight them "to the day I die" as he was confronted about the horrific crimes he committed against tiny Preston Davey. Varley, 37, a teacher from Blackpool, was found guilty on Monday of sexually abusing and murdering the 13-month-old, whom he and his partner, sales manager John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, had adopted in 2023. They were convicted of sexual assault, child cruelty and allowing the death of a child following a trial at Preston Crown Court, which heard "manipulator" Varley claim the tiny baby died in the bath. A video played to the court captured the moment teacher Varley vowed to fight cops after they confronted him in an interview and told him they would "make the suggestion" that he killed the tot. The footage, released by Lancashire Police, captures Varley sitting cross-armed at a table in a police interview room being quizzed by a policeman, who is behind the camera. They can be heard saying: "You have filmed him in difficulty for one hour and 45 minutes before you've even took him to hospital." Varley then curtly replies: "I haven't done it." The policeman then informs the twisted killer that he would suggest Varley had killed the baby boy. He states: "Well, I'll make the suggestion that you've killed him, Jamie." Varley responds: "You make the suggestion and I'll fight you to the day I die. Because one day, you guys will be in trouble, because you are absolutely wrong." He adds: "I don't know how I'm going to prove it, but you are wrong, because I have not done it." Jurors found this week that Varley had killed Preston, having found him 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. Varley had taken a year off from his job as a high school head of year for the adoption of Preston, who was just nine months when he came under the couple's care. The court heard that, in the first four months under the care of Varley and his partner, he was sexually abused, physically assaulted, and had indecent videos and photos taken of him. He was found to have suffered 40 traumatic injuries. Preston had been taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital three times in the months before his death exhibiting suspicious bruising, but this was explained away. Preston had also been seen by multiple social workers and teachers, colleagues of Varley. But on July 27, 2023, Varley rushed an unresponsive Preston to hospital for the last time. He claimed to have left the little boy in the bath for a couple of minutes before coming back to find him submerged. Medics spent 50 minutes trying to save his life, but were unsuccessful. Varley, meanwhile, gave a "performance" of a grieving parent that one senior doctor said was unlike anything she'd seen before. It was also noted that Preston's hair was dry, he had a nappy in place and did not appear to have swallowed any water. A Home Office post-mortem ruled out drowning as the cause of death and found around 40 non-accidental injuries, both external and internal. This included multiple clusters of "finger tip" bruises on his head, face and limbs, slap marks on his leg, and a human bite mark on the baby's right buttock. Preston also had injuries to his mouth, throat and bottom, with parts of his anatomy marked as "abnormal" and the injuries said to be consistent with "forcible penetration" and sexual abuse. His cause of death was found to be acute upper airways obstruction by an object or objects inserted into his mouth. During the investigation, detectives found evidence that Varley had confessed to a fellow teacher that he was having "dark thoughts" of suffocating or drowning Preston. He also texted his sister saying the young child was "dead meat" after a sleepless night. But most damning of all were grim indecent photos and videos of the abuse Preston suffered, some of which "cannot be unseen", the trial heard. Photos and videos ranged from examples of Varley "jump scaring" the clearly exhausted and sleepy child to wake him up, to potentially much more lethal examples. Police recovered a series of photos of Preston taken four days before his death, over a period of three minutes and 12 seconds in which he appears asleep or unconscious with his lips blue from lack of oxygen. Four days later, just 90 minutes before he was rushed to hospital, Varley recorded another video, in between using Snapchat and checking emails, of Preston in extreme distress, hardly breathing and taking "agonal breaths". Preston had been described as a happy, smiley baby at first, but he was described as looking "blank" later in his life - a sign child abuse expert Dr Joanne Gifford described to the jury as "frozen watchfulness", a trauma and stress response to child abuse. Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fallows said Varley was a "manipulative character" and "arrogant, self-centred liar" who had woven a web of lies about his mistreatment of Preston. He said: “I think Jamie Varley has tried to control the narrative and it’s only through working through these events and piecing them together and looking at them side by side do you really see that he is a manipulative character. "I think even in his evidence under cross-examination, you saw more of an obtuse, spiky side to him. He’s a man that has claimed to have tried to assist the investigation and give the investigation answers in relation to what happened to Preston, but the reality is far different.” Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley are due to be sentenced on Thursday.