Preston Davey

Preston Elijah Davey was a baby boy born at Wythenshawe Hospital in Greater Manchester on 16 June 2022. He lived only thirteen months, yet those who loved him have kept his name in public view so that what happened to him is not forgotten and so that other children might be better protected.

Removed into emergency foster care five days after his birth, Preston spent his first nine months with foster carers before being placed, in the spring of 2023, with prospective adopters Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley at their home in Staining, near Blackpool. The placement followed approval by the adoption agency Adoption Now and an adoption panel. His birth parents, Sarah Davey and Gary Nolan, have spoken since of the pain of losing him twice: once to the care system, and finally to violence.

In the months before his death Preston was taken to hospital more than once. Safeguarding staff raised concerns on at least one attendance, and Lancashire Police have since set out publicly what contact they had and did not have before 27 July 2023. Those admissions matter because they show how a child already failed once could be failed again by the systems meant to give him a permanent, safe home.

On 27 July 2023 Preston was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital unconscious and in cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead that evening. Medical evidence later showed that he had not drowned, as first claimed, but had died of acute upper airway obstruction after months of abuse while in the adoptive placement. Lancashire Police investigated; the Crown Prosecution Service brought charges; and after a long trial at Preston Crown Court in 2026, Varley was convicted of murder and related offences and given a whole life order, while McGowan-Fazakerley was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child and related offences and sentenced to twenty five years.

What remains central is not the detail of the crimes but the child himself, and the failure of adults and agencies who should have kept him safe. Preston's birth parents have held vigils on his birthdays. England's Children's Commissioner and local MPs have called for independent scrutiny of the safeguarding agencies involved, including Oldham Council and Adoption Now. This memorial follows the public record from police, the CPS, the courts and responsible local and national reporting. It names Preston as a person, not as a case title, and it asks only that he be remembered with care.