The Tragic Life Of Preston Davey: Was Preston bitten and abused?
The Trial
The Crime Desk
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode Caroline and Liz have the medical evidence which the jury were told were consistent with Preston Davey being bitten and sexually assaulted before he died. A pathologist with 40 years experience said she found evidence that he could have been smothered or he may have died from having something forced into his mouth. She also said he suffered bruises which were not accidental. Preston was 13 months old when he died within four months of being in the care of Jamie Varley and John McGowan Fazakerley who were in the process of adopting him. The prosecution say he was abused and murdered.
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Presenter: Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull
Producer: Chelsey Ranore
Editor: Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Trial U.K., |
| 0:07.0 | the Trial UK, the tragic life of Preston Davy. |
| 0:11.0 | I'm Caroline Cheatham. |
| 0:12.0 | And I'm this hull. |
| 0:13.0 | Today, we've got the medical evidence on how the prosecution say Preston Davy died. |
| 0:19.0 | He didn't drown, as Jamie Varley's claimed. |
| 0:22.2 | According to the pathologist who examined him, he could have been smothered, either by a hand |
| 0:27.6 | or something soft like a pillow in July 2023. Or he could have been suffocated by having an object |
| 0:34.5 | forced into his mouth. Preston also had a number of different injuries. |
| 0:39.3 | Some could be explained as innocent accidents. |
| 0:42.2 | Others, say the prosecution, were because he was repeatedly assaulted. |
| 0:46.8 | It's also now emerged that medical experts for both the prosecution and the defence agree |
| 0:53.2 | that Preston's injuries were consistent with a human |
| 0:57.9 | bite mark and sexual assault. Welcome to episode six. Was Preston bitten and abused? We'll be back |
| 1:06.9 | in a second. So welcome back. So welcome back. Liz and I were due to record this this morning, Friday. We're actually |
| 1:34.0 | recording it this afternoon Friday because we've had a few tech issues today. So we're |
| 1:37.8 | a bit late publishing on your feeds, blame the tech. But we're sorry all the same. We were desperate to bring you an |
| 1:45.2 | episode today because a lot's been happening over the last couple of days. We should give a bit |
| 1:50.3 | of a trigger warning here. I think the introduction does explain it, but we are talking about |
| 1:55.1 | the medical evidence. And at times, some of it is distressing, although as ever, we will cover |
| 2:00.7 | it as sensitively as we can. |
| 2:03.4 | So we're in the middle still of the prosecution case against Jamie Varley and his partner, |
... |
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