The Tragic Life Of Preston Davey: “Was it you?”
The Trial
The Crime Desk
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode we have the words of Jamie Varley as he denied abusing and murdering the baby boy he adopted. In a series of police interviews we’re bringing you today he says photos and videos the prosecution say are cruel or indecent were “totally innocent.” He also denied having any sexual interest in Preston and he said he did not kill him. But the jury also heard evidence that Preston had 45 bruises on his body, and he did not die from drowning in a bath, as Jamie Varley claimed.
Subscribe via thecrimedesk.com
Follow us on TikTok @DailyMailCrime
Email us thetrial@dailymail.com
WhatsApp us +447796657512 (start your message with ‘Trial’)
Presenter: Caroline Cheetham and Richard Marsden
Actor: Sarah Gee
Producer: Chelsey Ranore
Editor: Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.
The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.
Click here to sign up to The Crime Desk's weekly newsletter.
It's free and packed with exclusive interviews, expert insight, and gripping deep dive investigations from across the world.
A Daily Mail production.
Seriously Popular.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Trial UK, the tragic life of Preston Davy. I'm Caroline Cheatham. |
| 0:12.3 | And I'm Richard Marston. |
| 0:13.9 | A big welcome to you, Richard. First time on the podcast, and that's because Liz is away |
| 0:19.0 | on yet another celebration for a bit of a big birthday, |
| 0:23.4 | which we won't discuss because we're too polite. But you're kind enough to take a place for |
| 0:28.3 | today, and this is Friday that we're recording this on Friday morning. Now, we should say |
| 0:32.9 | you're able to do this because you've, of course, been covering this trial as one of the Northern |
| 0:37.1 | correspondents for the Daily Mail. So you and I have both been in court this week and it's |
| 0:43.6 | been busy. Thanks for having me, Caroline. And yes, it's been a busy week. Now, we should say |
| 0:50.8 | what we're hearing is still the prosecution case. We know Jamie Varley and John McGowan for Zachalib, both deny the charges against them, |
| 0:57.9 | but the defence case is yet to start. |
| 1:00.0 | So for the moment, we're still hearing about what the prosecution say is the case against them. |
| 1:05.1 | Yeah, a quick reminder on that. |
| 1:06.6 | Jamie Varley is charged with murder and with abuse, |
| 1:09.8 | and John McGowan for Zachaly is charged with cruelty and with abuse, and John McGowan for Zachalie is charged with |
| 1:12.2 | cruelty, abuse and causing or allowing the death of Preston Davy. Now, the allegation is these two men |
| 1:20.2 | adopted Preston when he was a few months old and they subjected him to abuse before Jamie |
| 1:27.0 | Varley allegedly killed him. |
| 1:29.0 | Now, since the trial began, which is just over a week ago now, |
| 1:32.9 | we've seen some powerful pictures and videos of Preston, |
| 1:37.0 | who was just 13 months old when he died. |
| 1:41.0 | We've had more videos now, which showed Jamie Varley being interviewed by the police. These were |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Crime Desk, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Crime Desk and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.