Update Episode - The Tragic Life Of Preston Davey: "It's my Fault"
The Trial
The Crime Desk
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this update episode Caroline and Liz have the moment 13-month-old Preston Davey was brought into A&E in the minutes before he died. CCTV footage was shown in court of Jamie Varley and John McGowan Fazakerley running into the hospital in Blackpool carrying the baby and the jury was told Jamie Varley repeatedly said: "It's my fault." He told doctors he'd left Preston in the bath alone for a few minutes and he'd started drowning. But the prosecution say he deliberately murdered him, after weeks of abuse. The men deny the charges.
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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 | The Crime Desk, Arresting Podcasts. |
| 0:06.1 | The Trial Update. |
| 0:18.1 | Welcome to The Trial Update. |
| 0:20.0 | I'm Caroline Cheatham. And I'm Liz Hull. So we're back with an update episode |
| 0:25.2 | today from Preston Crown Court and of course the trial of Jamie Varley and John McGowan for Zachal. |
| 0:32.0 | They're both accused, as we know, of abusing little baby called Preston Davy, who they adopted in April |
| 0:38.4 | 2023. |
| 0:40.1 | Jamie Varley is also accused of Preston's murder. |
| 0:43.7 | He died. |
| 0:44.3 | We've been told from an obstruction to his airway, and after he died, he was found to |
| 0:48.7 | have several injuries all over his body. |
| 0:51.8 | Now, the court didn't sit yesterday because of the bank holiday. And of course, |
| 0:55.5 | in Friday's episode from last week, we got you pretty much up to date. So just a quick reminder |
| 1:02.3 | of where we got to on Friday. And really, I think there were three key themes. These were the |
| 1:07.9 | messages that Jamie Varley was sending to friends and colleagues, some of which |
| 1:12.3 | suggested that he was struggling with Preston and struggling with fatherhood, especially because |
| 1:18.0 | Preston wasn't a very good sleeper. The other theme was the hospital visits, which started in |
| 1:24.4 | May 23. That was just a few weeks after Preston went to live with the men. |
| 1:30.5 | That was when Preston had a nosebleed. And then when he was treated for a broken arm, and we also |
| 1:35.4 | had the interactions the two men had with social workers as a result of those hospital visits. |
| 1:42.4 | And finally, much of the episode on Friday was around the content, |
| 1:47.5 | the police allegedly found on Jamie Varley's phone. And the jury last week was shown videos and |
... |
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