Baby Preston Davey had injuries 'consistent with sexual abuse', doctor tells court

Injuries sustained by a baby who later died were 'highly indicative of sexual trauma', a jury has been told. Preston Davey, aged 13 months, was rushed to hospital unresponsive by his adopted parents, Jamie Varley, 32, and John McGowan-Fazakerley, who are on trial at Preston Crown Court., accused of sexually abusing and murdering the child. Varley told police he had left the child in the bath for three or four minutes and returned to find him submerged in the water. Medics worked for nearly an hour trying to resuscitate the child before he was declared dead at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, at 7.18pm, on July 27, 2023. A post mortem showed the child had suffered around 40 injuries, including 30 external bruises, a fracture to his upper left arm and internal bruising to his throat, bottom and bladder. Dr Joanne Gifford, a child safeguarding expert, has said that the injuries which Preston suffered were consistent with child abuse. Peter Wright KC introduced Dr Gifford to the jury, saying that she has 20 years expertise in child safeguarding and cases of suspected child sexual abuse and offers advice to the NHS , social care and the police. She was contacted to provide a professional opinion to Blackpool Police following the death of Preston and on November 10, 2025, and produced a detailed report into her findings. The jury was told there were three occasions where there had been contact with health services relating to breathing difficulties and/or loss of consciousness - either reported by the parents or seen by health professionals. These were on May 11, May 25 and June 30, 2023. Dr Gifford says photos and videos provided to her, which were recovered from the defendants' phones, showed Preston in a "critical condition" on three previous occasions. These were a video recorded on June 15, showing Preston appearing unwell, on July 23, still photos showing Preston seemingly unresponsive over the bars of his cot, says Dr Gifford. And on July 27, 2023, about an hour and 45 minutes before Preston was taken to hospital, a video shows Preston "in extreme clinical distress". Dr Gifford says: "Clinically I see that video and want to resuscitate him immediately. He is pre terminal. His breathing pattern is a very, very poor sign of his wellbeing. He is a child in that video who needs to be resuscitated." The court heard that in isolation she would not be concerned about a video of a naked baby playing - this is common in a family but Dr Gifford says there were clinical signs of sexual abuse on more than one occasion. Referring to the injuries she said fractures are more likely to be inflicted and those to the humorous (upper arm) are also indicative of non-accidental injury, the doctor added, reported the Manchester Evening News . She stated: "Whilst a small number of bruises to the shins and head may be expected in a child this age learning to walk, it's not in any way clinically plausible that all these bruises could happen in a domestic circumstance, even allowing for if he had been left unsupervised or handled roughly." The jury is told there were also a number of videos indicating emotional abuse, showing Preston in unpleasant circumstances. These include Mr Varley scaring Preston by shouting "boo", the baby being kept awake and unusual eye movements when he was spun in a toy on the playground. There was also a 14 minute-long video of Preston being left alone in the bath, the jury is told. Dr Gifford said: "I thought these videos showed unpleasant experiences for Preston and a lack of appropriate caregiver response to the child. They are hard videos to watch, they are a child having unpleasant experiences. I also note he is a child who was placed for adoption." During the four months Preston was under adoption at the defendants’ Blackpool home, it is alleged he was routinely ill-treated, had indecent images and videos taken of him, was sexually abused and physically assaulted. 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.