A foster mother who cared for a baby boy before he was sexually abused and murdered had a 'gut feeling' the tot was being 'hidden' from her after he was handed over to a teacher and his boyfriend for adoption, a court heard today.

Sandra Cooper looked after Preston Davey for the first ten months of his life before he was placed in the care of Jamie Varley, 37, and his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32.

Initially, Mrs Cooper, an experienced foster carer who had looked after 43 children over 27 years, had no concerns about the couple taking on Preston.

She said introductory meetings were 'nice' and they behaved like any other new parents who were excited to adopt a child.

But, within days of Preston going to live with Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley permanently, Mrs Cooper said she became 'worried’ because the couple cancelled or failed to show up at two of three scheduled meetings.

‘I called the social worker and said, "I feel like something is wrong,"' she said.

‘I had a gut feeling. I said, "I feel like they are hiding him from me."

‘When we started to get different reasons (for why they couldn’t attend) I started to get worried.’

Textiles teacher Varley is on trial at Preston Crown Court accused of sexually abusing and murdering Preston, while McGowan-Fazakerley, a sales rep, is also accused of sexually assaulting the baby boy and allowing his death.

Preston was placed in the couple’s care, at their semi-detached home in Blackpool, Lancashire, aged ten months, on April 3, 2023. He died after being suffocated four months later.

Mrs Cooper said that after Preston had been placed she contacted Amy Shepherdson, a social worker with Oldham Council, who were responsible for the adoption, because she was concerned the couple were making excuses not to take part in official contact meetings.

She said they were eventually ‘made to have a visit,’ on April 29, 2023, at Barton Grange Garden Centre, near Lancaster, Lancashire, but she felt they made it ‘difficult’ for her and her husband, Paul, who at the time were caring for two other babies and a four-year-old child, to attend.

Sobbing at times as she gave evidence, Mrs Cooper said: ‘I was really worried. 

'I just remember we went to a farm shop…it was a long way. We needed to be there really early in the morning and I had two other babies I had to get out of bed at 6.30am to take them.

‘It was as if they didn’t want us to come. It couldn’t have been more difficult…but I would have walked to the end of the earth for that visit, so that’s what we did.’

Mrs Cooper said Preston ‘looked a bit stiff and a bit blank’ at the meeting, but she added: ‘We hadn’t seen him for a while. We just put it down as it happens sometimes…I was really glad to see him.’

The following month, on May 8, the couple also missed a visit when they were supposed to take Preston to Mrs Cooper’s birthday and retirement party.

Then, around a week later they lodged a complaint about her.

Mrs Cooper said that left her devastated because she felt it was 'unjustified' and that, from then on, she would never see Preston again.

The complaint, which was made to social services, involved the men being upset about another foster carer being present during one of their introductory visits at Mrs Cooper’s home.

It left her fearing she might lose her job, she added.

‘I took that really badly,' Mrs Cooper said. 

‘I took that as the day I would never see Preston again. The complaint wasn’t justified but I thought it was a reason for them to say, "We’ve fallen out with her," and I would never see him again – it was like a day of mourning for me.

‘I was devastated, I cried all day.’

Mrs Cooper said she tried to ring Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley to ask them to explain, but they refused to take her calls, so eventually she took herself out of the ‘Team Preston’ Whatsapp group that had been set up for them all to communicate together.

The complaint was never taken forward or acted upon.

However, Nick Johnson, KC, defending Varley, pointed out that Mrs Cooper continued to respond to messages, including to one of a video of Preston crawling that the couple sent, until the middle of June.

Asked why she replied, Mrs Cooper said they ‘would always do that’ , before adding: ‘But I did phone the social worker about that video.’

Preston died in July that year – around four months after being placed in the care of Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley.

A post-mortem found he had 40 separate injuries and a pathologist identified his cause of death as an ‘acute obstruction of his upper airway.’

Varley denies murder, sexual assault, assault by penetration, inflicting GBH for breaking Preston's elbow three weeks before his death, four counts of child cruelty, 14 counts of making and taking indecent images of a child, and one charge of distributing an indecent image of a child.

McGowan-Fazakerley denies causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of child cruelty.

The pair face two further joint charges of sexual assault and child cruelty.

The trial, expected to last six to eight weeks, continues.