Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s care of Preston Davey to be investigated after ‘pure evil’ murder

Inquiry will look at whether any opportunities were missed during the care of Preston Davey

Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.

The death of Preston Davey, and conviction of his adoptive parents, will just be the start of a process of trying to find answers on how something like this has been allowed to happen.

Baby Preston was born in prison and placed into foster care at five days old. He received treatment by the NHS in Blackpool and social services in Oldham in his short life.

Questions will be asked - of Blackpool Victoria Hospital in particular - about whether any opportunities for intervention were missed ahead of his death in 2023.

That is the focus of today’s issue, which may make for difficult reading.

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Blackpool briefing

🍴 A restaurant owner in Blackpool has vowed to appeal over a decision to revoke his premises licence over illegal worker claims. The Akash Tandoori restaurant on Topping Street is a popular and long-established eatery in the town which has been running for many years. But the Home Office says that when members of its North West Immigration Compliance Enforcement (ICE) team visited the restaurant, they found two men on the premises who were working there illegally. The Government department requested that Blackpool’s licensing committee consider revoking Akash’s premises license over its assertions that the two males were working in breach of their conditions or restrictions. Although Akash boss Iqbal Nooree put his own case to the committee, councillors agreed to revoke the licence. Now Mr Nooree has vowed to appeal against the decision and says he will “fight it all the way.”

🛎️ Proposals to demolish an empty hotel on South Shore seafront and replace it with 15 self-contained flats have been lodged with Blackpool planners. Planning documents show that 33 percent of the apartments (a total of five) will provide affordable housing, if the scheme gets the go ahead. The application is for the erection of a four storey building comprising 15 self-contained permanent apartments, following demolition of the former Henderson Hotel at 1 Wimbourne Place, a site close to Blackpool Pleasure Beach Resort. The Henderson Hotel was one of three adjoining hotels being offered for sale early in 2025 at £1.9m as part of a potential redevelopment project.

👥 A new purpose-built Scouts headquarters which will also serve as a community hub in Blackpool’s Marton area has been given the green light. The new amenity, to be called the Marshall Centre, will be located at the former Marton Methodist Church site on Midgeland Road. A planning application was lodged with Blackpool Council planners, seeking permission for the erection of a single story building on the site for use as a Scout hut and community centre with associated car parking and landscaping. Now the scheme can press ahead after being granted planning permission.

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Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s care of Preston Davey to be investigated after ‘pure evil’ murder

Preston Davey

By Michael Holmes

An inquiry into the short life of Preston Davey, who was sexually abused by his new adoptive fathers before being murdered by one of them, will look into his hat-trick of admissions to Blackpool Victoria Hospital in the run up to his death.

The baby boy was treated at the Vic, in Whinney Heys Road, three times in the four months before his death in 2023, and was later found to have suffered around 40 deliberate injuries, including to his mouth, throat and bottom.

The child protection review can get under way now that South Shore Academy textiles teacher Jamie Varley, 37, and his ex-public schoolboy and financial sales manager boyfriend John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, both then of Staining Road in Staining and later of Chandlers Way, Grimsargh, have been convicted.

The pair’s trial heard some of the details - but now the review, which was suspended while court proceedings were ongoing, will officially examine every area of Preston’s life, from his birth in prison on June 16 2022 and placement in foster care at five days old, to his adoption by Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley on April 1 2023 and subsequent treatment by the NHS in Blackpool and social services in Oldham.

It will delve into the facts and aim to provide answers to some tough questions relating to the 13-month-old’s life and death.

An element of the review is expected to specifically look at whether any chances were missed during the care of Preston before his death.

Varley denied murder, manslaughter, and multiple child sex offences, including making indecent images of Preston, who he had renamed Elijah, and abusing him.

After an eight-week trial, he was found guilty of murder, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault of a child, 13 counts of taking indecent photos or videos of a child, one of distributing an indecent photo of a child, to his co-accused, and one of making an indecent photo.

Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley

McGowan-Fazakerley denied allowing the death of a child, two counts of child cruelty and sexual assault of a child.

He was found guilty.

The couple’s trial, which exposed one of Britain’s worst child abuse cases and sickened the nation, was told about Preston’s hospital visits before his murder.

The first, on May 25, saw Varley rush into A&E with the boy at about 11.10am, telling paediatric sister Zoe Hellowell: “He’s not breathing.”

Hellowell said Preston was breathing, albeit ineffectively, but unresponsive and floppy.

He also had bruises on either side of his forehead.

Nurse Holly Edwards raised the alarm and police were contacted, with a medical report describing the injuries as “unexplained” and “inconsistent with a version of events given…”

At the time, Preston was diagnosed with a chest infection and recovered within four hours, though an expert witness for the prosecution threw the diagnosis into doubt - suggesting another cause for the boy’s symptoms.

In a statement read before the jury, Dr Mark Rosenthal, consultant respiratory paediatrician, said the condition Preston was in on the day of his hospital visit pointed towards a “non-accidental hypoxic event”, with causes including suffocation, aspiration or bleeding into the lungs.

He said Preston’s history of arriving at the hospital very unwell, confused and acidotic - when there is too much acid in the blood - along with having a seizure and then recovering could never be down to an infection.

No police action followed.