Gay couple in Britain sentenced for brutal murder of foster son

An LGBT couple treated the child as a “plaything.” Photo: Lancashire Police

A British court has handed down severe sentences to a couple who spent months abusing and sexually assaulting a 13-month-old infant before ultimately killing him, The Guardian reports.

British teacher Jamie Varley will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the brutal murder of his foster son, Preston Davey. The court imposed a whole-life order, meaning he will never be eligible for release. His partner, John McGougan-Fazakerley, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the abuse and sexual assault of the child.

Investigators found that the defendants treated the infant as a “plaything.” During the short time the boy lived in their home, he was “routinely ill-treated, sexually abused and physically assaulted." Forensic pathologists documented more than 40 injuries on the child's body.

In July 2023, Varley brought Preston's lifeless body to a hospital and staged what prosecutors described as a "performance of a grieving parent." He attempted to convince doctors that the child had accidentally drowned in a bathtub, but there was no medical evidence to support that story. Instead, a pathologist gave the cause of death as acute upper airways obstruction by either smothering an object or objects being inserted into the baby’s mouth.

A long police investigation revealed "a number of disturbing images and videos on Varley’s phone, which were used as evidence that he had been physically, psychologically and sexually abusing his child."

The tragedy sparked outrage across Britain and raised serious questions about the country's foster care and child protection system. It emerged that during the final weeks of Preston's life, he had been seen by a "battery of professionals" – including social workers, doctors, and nurses. A social worker visited the home just 20 days before the boy's death but failed to identify any danger. Officials reportedly accepted explanations for the child's injuries largely because Varley was a respected secondary-school teacher.

Preston was born in prison, where his biological mother was serving a sentence. For the first nine months of his life, he lived with a foster family, where he was described as a happy and cheerful child, until authorities transferred him to a homosexual couple.

As the UOJ reported, the first openly transgender lawmaker in the United States was sentenced for child sexual abuse offenses.

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