Rebecca Joynes: Teacher found guilty of sexual activity with two schoolboys
One of the schoolboys said Joynes had told him she could not have a baby and they had unprotected sex - she later became pregnant.
Saturday 18 May 2024 17:42, UK
A "predator" teacher has been found guilty of having sex with two schoolboys.
Rebecca Joynes, 30, was found guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust, following a two-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.
Joynes had denied she had sex with one schoolboy, boy A, and insisted in court that her relationship with a second teenager, boy B, only began once he had left school and she had been fired from her job - so it was not illegal.
Jurors heard that both boys sent Joynes flirty Snapchat messages, and hid the interactions from their parents.
She took boy A - who lied about going to a friend's house after school finished on a Friday - shopping and bought him a £350 Gucci belt before they went back to her flat in Salford Quays, where they had sex twice, the court was told.
Joynes told the boy, "No one had better find out".
The next day the court heard the boy's mother noticed a love-bite on her son's neck which he dismissed as, "nothing".
However, rumours began circulating and on the Monday morning police officers were at the school along with boy A's "distraught" mother who stormed into reception after being told her son had spent the night with a teacher.
Joynes was bailed on condition she have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18.
The teenager's semen was later recovered from her bedsheets by police.
Boy B said sexual activity began when he was 15, with kissing and full sex when he was 16 - and still a pupil.
Joynes was already suspended from her high school job when she allegedly kissed and fondled the second, boy B, after sending him a photo of her bottom wearing just a thong, the jury heard.
Boy B later told officers he viewed the relationship as "friends with benefits" and said they regularly had sex while he was still at school.
He said Joynes had told him she could not have a baby and they had unprotected sex.
Boy B told officers the day before Joynes was arrested for a second time, she had planned a "date night", with "surprises" around the flat - to which he played along with and followed.
At the end it was a baby grow, saying, 'Best Dad' on the front.
"I was like, 'What the f***!'", boy B told police.
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Joynes told the jury she had ruined her "dream job" with stupid "mistakes" by meeting up with the two teenagers and having them back at her flat, but had denied under-age sex.
She said she had come out of a nine-year relationship, was lonely and flattered by the attention.
During the trial, she appeared in court with a pink baby's bonnet visibly tucked into her trousers.
It belonged to the child she had with boy B.
Joynes wept as she told jurors the baby she had with boy B was taken away from her hours after giving birth and she now has only limited access, three times a week.
Talking about the baby bonnet, prosecutor Joe Allman told the jury in his closing speech: "That was a pretty naked attempt to garner your sympathy."
Jane Wilson, senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West, described Joynes as a "sexual predator".
"Joynes was entrusted with the responsibility of teaching and safeguarding children. She abused her position to groom and ultimately sexually exploit schoolboys. Her behaviour has had a lasting impact on them."
Neither teen can be identified for legal reasons.
Joynes will be sentenced on 4 July.