Foster parent Sandra Cooper looked after Preston for 10 months after his birth in June 2022. He had been taken into care by Oldham Council when he was five days old.
Mrs Cooper, in a statement read to the jury, said: “Preston was a very happy baby.”
She said while he was “not a good sleeper” he quickly went back to sleep by having his head stroked.
Mrs Cooper said after Preston’s dairy intolerance was identified and his milk changed, the child was “happy and content”, adding: “Preston was a perfectly healthy baby.”
Mrs Cooper handed Preston over to the defendants at the end of March 2023, but Preston was taken to hospital three times – once with a fractured left elbow – in the following months, the jury heard.
On 27 July 2023 the baby was rushed to hospital by the defendants, unconscious and in a state of cardiac arrest, and medics could not revive him.
Varley told police the he had briefly left the child in the bath and when he returned he was drowning.
A post-mortem examination found multiple non-accidental, internal and external injuries, and a cause of death to be acute upper airways obstruction by either smothering or an object or objects inserted into his mouth.
Varley denies murder, manslaughter, two counts of assault by penetration, five counts of cruelty to a child, grievous bodily harm, sexual assault of a child, 13 counts of taking indecent photos or videos of a child, one of distributing an indecent photo of a child to his co-accused, and one of making an indecent photo.
McGowan-Fazakerley denies allowing the death of a child, three counts of child cruelty and one count of the sexual assault of a child.
The trial continues.