South Shore Academy teacher charged with murdering baby boy
PLUS: Guesthouse vows to come back from prohibition order better than ever
Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
This week we were given an update into an investigation into the death of a baby boy in Blackpool. Two men, now living in leafy Preston suburb Grimsargh, have been hit with a number of charges.
We also have a conversation with a hotel owner in Blackpool whose hotel has been served with an emergency prohibition order over concerns that included bare wires.
That’s particularly pertinent for Blackpool Council after the death of 10-year-old Jack Piper-Sheach at a hotel in 2023 after touching an electric wire.
Blackpool teacher charged with murdering baby boy
By Michael Holmes
A Blackpool secondary school teacher has been charged with murdering a baby boy.
Jamie Varley, 36, who worked at South Shore Academy, is accused of killing Preston Davey, 13 months, who died after being taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital in July 2023.
He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital, in Whinney Heys Road, in an “unresponsive” state, police said.
Varley, who lived in the town before moving to Chandlers Way in Grimsargh, has also been charged with sexual assaulting a child under 13, GBH, child cruelty, taking indecent images of a child, possessing indecent images of a child, distributing an indecent image of a child and possessing an extreme image.
His boyfriend, John McGowan-Fazakerley, 31, also of Chandlers Way in Grimsargh, near Preston, has been charged with causing and allowing the death of a child, child cruelty and sexual assault on a child under 13.
Both men were arrested following Davey’s death.
They were re-arrested on Wednesday (11 June) and charged on Thursday (12 June) after talks between Lancashire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Varley has been suspended from work since first being arrested.
Matt McIver, chief operating officer at the Cidari Multi-Academy Trust, which runs South Shore Academy, said: “The charges do not relate to any pupils past or present at South Shore Academy.”
Specialist staff were at the school, in St Annes Road, on Friday morning to provide “support locally to colleagues and pupils”, he added.
Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley appeared before magistrates in Lancaster on Friday (13 June).
Varley, wearing a beige polo shirt with collar-length dark hair with blond streaks, spoke only to confirm his identity during the five-minute hearing.
He was remanded into custody until he appears before a judge at a crown court on Monday (16 June).
McGowan-Fazakerley, in jeans and a sweatshirt patterned with images of owls and half-moons, also confirmed his identity and was also remanded into custody.
Emergency prohibition order at hotel after council finds four areas of concern
By Richard Hunt
A Blackpool hotelier whose guesthouse has been hit with an emergency prohibition order says it was not forced to close down – as it was already shut.
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