Welcome to the Trial UK, the tragic life of Preston Davy. I'm Caroline Cheatham.

And I'm Liz Hull. Today we've got Jamie Varley's version of events. He told the jury he made mistakes and he felt ashamed now at the way he treated his adopted son,

Preston Davy, but he did not abuse or kill him. He said settling down in a relationship and becoming

a teacher and a father was all he'd ever wanted. In a series of videos played in court, Jamie Varley

could be seen playing, singing and dancing with Preston.

He said he took him to the zoo, the park, and Preston was his ray of sunshine.

He admitted he found parenting a challenge, and he said he felt like he was failing as a father.

He also said some of the pictures on his phone of Preston naked or looking

uncomfortable were inappropriate, but at the time he found them funny. And he denied other

images were trophies of sexual abuse. Welcome to episode 8, Jamie Varley. We'll be back in a second. So welcome back to the podcast.

Liz and I are recording this about 8 o'clock in the morning of Friday, May the 22nd.

And yesterday was a big day because Jamie Varley started to give evidence from the witness box.

Now, of course, we focused our coverage of this case so far on the prosecution, what the police and the prosecution say happened to Preston Davy.

And that's because, as anyone who knows anything about the British justice system knows,

the prosecution go first. So until the defence case starts, we have no idea what they're going to say. So we had to wait until Jamie

Varley decided to give evidence and started talking to the jury. And that happened yesterday

before we could outline to you

what that defence case is going to be. And it did begin, Liz, with Jamie Varley in the witness

box, and he, of course, is facing the most serious charges. Yeah, Caroline, that's right. He's

facing multiple charges, most of them for alleged cruelty and sexual abuse of Preston, but he's also facing a charge of murder.

And as you said, his defence case got going yesterday morning. When the jury came into court shortly after half past 10, he was already waiting in the witness box. He was dressed in a blue

suit. He had a light blue shirt on and a tie and his hair in a knot or kind of bun because he's got

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