The Tragic Life Of Preston Davey: Jamie Varley
5/22/202629 min
In this episode Jamie Varley tells his story. As the defence case gets underway Jamie Varley entered the witness box to deny abusing or killing Preston Davey. He said he was the safest person in the world for Preston and being a teacher and a daddy was all he ever wanted. He also denied keeping pictures on his phone which were “trophies” of Preston being sexually abused. But he said he accepted looking back that some of the footage was inappropriate.
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Presenter: Caroline Cheetham and Liz Hull
Actors: Sarah Gee, Oliver Sykes, Benny Fiddimore
Editor: Chelsey Ranore
Creative Director: Caroline Cheetham
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular.
The Trial series uses actors and some voices generated by AI. Their words are taken as verbatim from the official court transcript.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[door opening and closing] The Crime Desk, a resting podcast.
Caroline Cheetham· Host0:05
Welcome to The Trial UK, the tragic life of Preston Davey. I'm Caroline Cheatham.
Liz Hull· Host0:11
And I'm Liz Hull.
Caroline Cheetham· Host0:12
Today, we've got Jamie Varley's version of events. He told the jury he made mistakes, and he felt ashamed now at the way he treated his adopted son, Preston Davey, but he did not abuse or kill him.
Liz Hull· Host0:26
He said settling down in a relationship and becoming a teacher and a father was all he'd ever wanted.
Caroline Cheetham· Host0:32
In a series of videos played in court, Jamie Varley could be seen playing, singing, and dancing with Preston. He said he took him to the zoo, the park, and Preston was his ray of sunshine.
Liz Hull· Host0:45
He admitted he found parenting a challenge, and he said he felt like he was failing as a father.
Caroline Cheetham· Host0:50
He also said some of the pictures on his phone of Preston naked or looking uncomfortable were inappropriate, but at the time, he found them funny.
Liz Hull· Host1:00
And he denied other images were trophies of sexual abuse. Welcome to episode eight, Jamie Varley.
Caroline Cheetham· Host1:08
We'll be back in a second.
Speaker 31:10
[Instrumental music playing] The to-do list doesn't stop, and neither does the pressure to keep up with it. If you've been running on fumes, Grow