The boyfriend of a teacher accused of sexually abusing and murdering a baby boy the couple were adopting told jurors ‘he never did anything’ to make him question the infant’s safety.

John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, said his partner, secondary school head of year Jamie Varley, 37, ‘doted on’ Preston Davey and was ‘kind and caring’ towards him.

McGowan-Fazakerley, a sales manager for a finance company, told jurors: ‘He took to parenting like a duck to water. He cared for him, he was a very loving, affectionate father.’

Giving evidence for the first time at Preston Crown Court this morning, McGowan-Fazakerley – himself accused of charges including causing or allowing Preston’s death – said: ‘He (Varley) did everything right from what I saw. He was kind and caring towards him.

‘He never did anything in my eyesight or when I was at home to make me think or question leaving this little boy with Jamie, that he’s not going to be here anymore.’

McGowan-Fazakerley’s barrister, Anne Whyte KC, said: ‘It’s said you should have foreseen the circumstances in which his death occurred?’

The defendant replied: ‘If I had an instinct that my world was going to collapse in on itself that day (when Preston died), I wouldn’t sit there and not do anything about it if I thought that anything was going to happen. 

'I would have picked Preston up and I would have ran out of the house.’

But he then told the court he did not know what happened on the day Preston died - when he had left Varley alone with the 13-month-old to go to work and returned to find him in desperate need of medical attention.

The trial has been told how, after returning home to Blackpool, McGowan-Fazakerley drove Preston on the one mile journey to Blackpool Victoria Hospital accompanied by Varley.

Ms Whyte said: ‘To this day, do you feel you actually know what happened on the 27th of July (2023)?

McGowan-Fazakerley said: ‘No.’

The barrister then asked him whether he ‘failed to protect him (Preston) from physical harm’.

Again, he replied ‘no’ and, defending his partner, he added: ‘I’ve never seen Jamie or anyone (else) for that matter hit, punch, kick, prod, smack, all the above, or bite my son.'

Preston was found with over 40 separate external injuries and serious internal wounds. These included bruising and a bite mark to one of his buttocks.

McGowan-Fazakerley added: ‘If I thought that Jamie or anybody for that matter who had a degree of responsibility for his care, did any of those things, I would have done something about it. I would have picked him up and removed him from that house.’

He added: ‘I trusted Jamie. There was never a moment I would not trust him to care for him (Preston).’

Explaining bruising visible on Preston's forehead in several photographs Varley had taken, McGowan-Fazakerley said he had seen the baby bang his head on ‘numerous occasions’ while playing.

He said that he had noticed each time ‘how quickly bruises can appear on his head’.

McGowan-Fazakerley said they both decided he should continue working as he was the higher earner, with Varley taking long-term parental leave from his school after Preston was placed with them at the end of March 2023.

Apart from difficulties with Preston’s sleep patterns, he said he believed his partner was coping well at home, had the support of his mother and was regularly going out rather than struggling.

‘Preston was completely visible to our social worker, health workers, friends, the community.

‘The struggles I was aware of were the struggles any parent has,’ McGowan-Fazakerley added.

'I've been frustrated, Jamie's been frustrated but anger, not at all.' 

He said he was unaware Varley had confided in friends of having ‘dark thoughts’, or had asked a colleague for some of her anti-depressants.

The trial has already been told how a ‘distressed and agitated’ Varley turned up unannounced at the home of fellow teacher Janet Gee towards the end of June 2023, telling her he was having ‘harmful thoughts’ about suffocating Preston.

McGowan-Fazakerley said he felt ‘heartbroken’ to hear of the incident.

He said: ‘She’s got my telephone number, she’s a friend. Why on earth would she not pick up the phone and tell me or tell somebody that Jamie had that conversation. Nobody rang social services. Nobody did anything.’

But McGowan-Fazakerley said his partner became ‘worried’ about Preston’s health after the first of three admissions to Blackpool Victoria Hospital on May 25, 2023, suffering a suspected seizure.

The court heard he had further concerns related to his students being regraded for their school work, and an ‘accusation’ about his handling of money for the Year 11 Prom.

McGowan-Fazakerley said: ‘Jamie was accused of spending all the Prom money and them having no money left for the prom.’

Describing Varley’s mobile phone use, McGowan-Fazakerley said his partner was ‘constantly’ taking pictures and videos of Preston, with whom he had bonded ‘very quickly’.

Life at home was, he said, a ‘positive household’ although they had ‘normal bickers’ and a brief exchange over a decline in their sex life due to their new arrival.

McGowan-Fazakerley, who met Varley in 2019 while he was studying for a PhD prior to beginning his career in sales, said his partner was ‘a bit of a drama queen at times’ while he was ‘a little bit reserved’.

He also described the moment the couple, who decided to adopt a child in 2021, saw a profile of Preston when they were looking at babies who were being considered for adoption.

McGowan-Fazakerley became emotional as he recalled how they were shown a profile for a 'Baby P' by their social worker.

'She read that he demands what is on TV by screaming or giggling or vocalising to have his favourite programme on. I said to Jamie, 'ruddy Norah, that's like you'. I thought, that's our little boy'.   

But under further questioning this afternoon, McGowan-Fazakerley said he was was ‘angry’ at his partner for taking ‘shocking and inappropriate’ videos of Preston.

He spoke out against footage made by Varley showing the infant being spun around ‘too fast’ on a playground ride, unattended in the bath and playing in the bath close to a naked Varley.

But asked if he suspected his partner, accused of suffocating and causing serious internal injuries to Preston on the day he died in July 2023, had any sexual interest in their ‘son’, he replied: ‘Not at all’.

McGowan-Fazakerley said that while he was sent some of the videos, he was too busy with work to watch all of them properly.

He said he only became aware of other footage during the couple’s ongoing trial.

Shown videos of Preston Davey being spun around in a children’s playground teacup ride, McGowan-Fazakerley said: ‘They are ridiculous, shocking.’

At the time Varley shared the video with him, McGowan-Fazakerley recalled not watching it in detail ‘but just seeing that they were having fun’. However, he said that when he ‘studied the video thoroughly, he’s being spun too quickly and vigorously’.

Turning to a 14-minute video of Preston on his own in the bath, shot on Varley’s phone which had been left in the bathroom while he was elsewhere in the house, McGowan-Fazakerley said: ‘I first became aware in the police interview.’

He told how he was only shown the full length during the trial and said: ‘I think it’s just beyond words.’

Asked by his barrister Mrs Whyte for his reaction, McGowan-Fazakerley called the video ‘shocking, inappropriate and pathetic and stupid’ adding: ‘That video makes me very angry. He should not have done that.’

McGowan-Fazakerley described a video shot by Varley while naked in the bath with Preston playing between his legs – in April 2023 only weeks after being custody of the infant - as ‘inappropriate’

‘I don’t understand why he would take that video,’ he added.

McGowan-Fazakerley also criticised Varley for videoing Preston while he ‘appeared unwell’ at the couple’s home in Blackpool but not seeking medical help.

McGowan-Fazakerley, flying home from a work trip when the video was taken on June 15, 2023, said: ‘He’s not safe. If I was at home, I would have made sure he was seen by someone.’

McGowan-Fazakerley then was challenged over images taken of a sleeping Preston leaning over the bars of his cot on July 23, four days before his death - which the prosecution allege show evidence he sexually abused the baby boy.

He replied: ‘I have never sexually assaulted my child. I’ve never touched my child in an inappropriate way.’

McGowan-Fazakerley added: ‘It’s vile, it’s disgusting, it’s abhorrent, it’s inhuman.’

He said another image, taken by Varley of Preston’s backside, was to check for abnormalities after a gastric issue, while other pictures of a naked Preston playing were innocent.

McGowan-Fazakerley added the couple had received advice at Blackpool Victoria Hospital - where they took Preston with breathing problems on May 25 in the first of three admissions before his death - to video him if he got into future difficulties.

McGowan-Fazakerley denies allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child. 

His boyfriend Jamie Varley, who was head of Year 11 at a comprehensive school in Blackpool, 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.

The trial continues.