Blackpool hospital linked to missed warning signs before boy's murder
Blackpool Victoria Hospital missed a bruise warning on Damion Russell the day before Preston Davey was brought in with injuries, exposing a second safeguarding failure.
Blackpool Victoria Hospital has been tied to a second missed safeguarding warning, after a review found staff failed to ask about a bruise on two-year-old Damion Russell’s forehead when he was seen there on June 29, 2023. That visit came the day before Preston Davey was taken to the same hospital in Blackpool with bruising.
The Blackpool Safeguarding Children panel said medics should have questioned Damion’s father about an “old, mild black bruise spot” on the child’s forehead. Safeguarding rules required staff to ask family members how children had been hurt, but the review found that opportunity was missed. Damion had been placed with his father, Daniel Hardcastle, in May 2023 after Hardcastle fought for sole custody.
On August 19, 2023, Hardcastle called emergency services to say Damion was unresponsive and injured at their home on Central Drive in Blackpool. Damion died in hospital in Manchester on August 21, 2023, after suffering an unsurvivable brain injury. Hardcastle was later convicted of murdering his son after a four-week trial at Preston Crown Court in July 2024 and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years.
Preston was 13 months old when he died in July 2023 after being taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital in cardiac arrest following a fatal sexual assault by his adoptive father, former teacher Jamie Varley. Preston had been taken to hospital three times, seen by a battery of professionals and police had been called before his death. Varley received a whole life order, while his partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, was jailed for 25 years for allowing Preston’s death.
Dame Rachel de Souza, England’s Children’s Commissioner, called Preston’s death a “failure of the state and the safeguarding system” and said the review must establish whether his murder could have been prevented. A local child safeguarding practice review has been commissioned by Oldham Council, with the national child safeguarding practice review panel also involved. Blackpool South MP Chris Webb called the missed opportunities around Damion Russell “deeply concerning.”
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