Blackpool Victoria Hospital Saw Damion Russell the Day Before Preston Davey's Final Visit. He Was Also Later Murdered.

Since our June 25 coverage established that two toddlers were murdered after separately passing through Blackpool Victoria Hospital, the BBC has reported a specific chronological detail: Damion Russell was seen at the hospital's A&E department the day before the last of Preston Davey's three visits. The same institution encountered both children within 24 hours and failed adequately on both.

What happened to each child

Damion Russell, aged two, was killed by his father Daniel Hardcastle in August 2023. During Hardcastle's sentencing at Preston Crown Court, a judge described the boy as "covered in injuries, top to toe and front to back," including an adult bite mark. Hardcastle had been granted sole custody only recently before the attack. He was jailed for life in July 2024 with a minimum term of 22 years.

Thirteen-month-old Preston Davey was sexually and physically abused by his adoptive father Jamie Varley, a Blackpool high school teacher, and died on July 27, 2023. Varley was convicted of murder, rape, and related charges and received a whole-life prison term. His partner, John McGowan-Fazakerley, was jailed for 25 years for allowing Preston's death and sexual offences.

Both children had recently been removed from foster families and placed with the adults who killed them.

The hospital failures, specifically

In Damion's case, a safeguarding practice review published in November found that hospital staff spotted a bruise on his head and did not ask his father what caused it. The Blackpool Safeguarding Children Partnership's review said this fell short of "expected practice," according to BBC News.

In Preston's case, Varley showed A&E staff a video on his phone that he claimed explained the boy's bruising. It was later established that the video had been recorded 12 days earlier and could not account for fresh injuries.

Two different failures, two different mechanisms. The same hospital, the same general timeframe, and the same outcome.

The argument for a unified inquiry

Hannah Joy Hocking, a friend of Damion's biological mother who has been assisting her through the review process, told BBC News that the two cases cannot reasonably be treated in isolation. "I've seen the news articles about Preston recently, and my brain instantly just went into thinking about Damion," she said. "I think there should be a full inquiry. I completely agree with that and I feel like people need to stand up for these two little boys."

Blackpool South Labour MP Chris Webb and Fylde MP Andrew Snowden have already called for a public inquiry into safeguarding failures linked to Preston Davey. Neither MP's office has yet publicly addressed whether their call extends to Damion's case.

The counterargument worth hearing

Authorities could reasonably argue that each case involved distinct circumstances. Different fathers, different social care pathways, different failure modes. Lumping them together risks producing a review too broad to yield specific, actionable findings. Separate reviews can, in theory, drill deeper into the specific decisions made in each case. That is a legitimate process concern. The Blackpool Safeguarding Children Partnership has already completed a review of Damion's death, and reopening a closed case carries procedural complications.

When the same hospital sees two children on consecutive days—both recently placed with biological parents after foster care, both showing signs of injury, both dead within weeks—the argument for keeping the reviews separate becomes harder to sustain on institutional grounds alone.

Where the coroner and the inquiries stand now

Blackpool's coroners' service has confirmed that Damion Russell's case is closed. It has not yet made a decision on whether to proceed with a coroner's inquiry into Preston Davey's death, according to BBC News.

An independent review into agency conduct before Preston's death is currently underway, per BBC reporting. No equivalent active review of Damion's case appears to be open at this time.

The unresolved question is whether Blackpool's coroners' service will reopen Damion Russell's case, or whether the political pressure now building around Preston Davey will force a broader statutory inquiry that encompasses both children. Without that, Hocking and Damion's biological mother are navigating a process where the case is officially closed while the institutional failures that parallel Preston's remain, by the coroner's own determination, unresolved in the public record.