A predatory maths teacher has been found guilty of having sex with two teenage boys that she taught at their secondary school.
Rebecca Joynes, 30, was already suspended from her high school job and on bail after engaging in sexual activity with Boy A, 15, when she began a sexual relationship with the second youngster, Boy B, who she later became pregnant by.
Despite engaging in unprotected sex with Boy B after telling him she could not become pregnant, she surprised him with a baby grow saying “Best Dad” towards the end of their relationship, leaving him distraught.
Jurors heard that both boys, who cannot be identified due to their ages, had sent Joynes flirty Snapchat messages before she invited them around to her flat for sexual encounters.
Softly spoken and described by the teenagers as “really pretty”, Joynes closed her eyes and grimaced, before she began visibly shaking as she stood in the dock as the guilty verdicts were returned by the jury foreman on Friday following a two-week trial.
In the case of Boy A, she gave him all but one of the digits of her phone number, and as a problem-solving exercise, he had to work out the final digit.
They connected on Snapchat and he sent her flirty texts with the pair agreeing to meet in secret. She then took him shopping and bought him a £350 Gucci belt and went back to her flat in Salford Quays where he said they had sex, with his semen 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 while he was still a pupil.
Joynes said she had a “breakdown” after she was suspended from her job following the police investigation into her relationship with Boy A, and moved back to her parents’ home on the Wirral.
She said she was at a low point when Boy B messaged her on Snapchat asking how she was. “I genuinely thought he cared,” Joynes said. Soon Boy B was also messaging, “Get your tits out”, Joynes replying, “Not tonight”.
After his birthday, Boy B lied to his parents telling them he was going to watch a Manchester United match but instead again went to Joynes’s apartment.
He told jurors how he was “nervous” when he lost his virginity to Joynes, warning her: “Don’t expect anything big, I’m only 16.”
As he removed his clothes, Joynes said: “Oh! You lied to me.”
He later told police he regarded the relationship as “friends with benefits” and said they regularly had sex while he was still at school.
The relationship also soured, with frequent rows, as Joynes became jealous and controlling, he claimed.
In a bid to save the relationship, and just a day before Joynes was arrested for a second time, she invited Boy B round for a “date night” involving an Ann Summers scratchcard of sexual activities, rose petals and hidden notes around her flat, leading to “surprises” 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.
In a letter to Boy B, Joynes wrote: “Every inch of you is perfect. You are all I ever dream about.”
Joynes had claimed no sexual activity ever took place with Boy A and a relationship developed with Boy B while she was suspended from her job and only became sexual after she was dismissed and he had left school at 16, so no offence had taken place.
The defendant was found guilty of six counts of sexual activity with a child at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday, including two while being a person in a position of trust, following a trial after nine hours of deliberation.
Joe Allman, prosecuting, previously told jurors the defendant was hoping they would see the case differently because she is a woman and not a man.
He questioned why inappropriate Snapchats, comments and the boys referring to her as “Bunda Becky” were not immediately “shut down” by the teacher and questioned whether she was attracted to teenage boys.
She was also accused of a “naked attempt to garner sympathy” from the jury by having a pink baby’s bonnet visibly tucked into her trouser front.
Earlier, 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 denied underage sex.
Joynes joined the school in 2018, as part of the Teach First teacher recruitment scheme after studying for a sports and exercise science degree.
She said she was 28, had undergone a messy break-up after the end of a nine-year relationship, struggled during the Covid pandemic, and was lonely when she became “flattered” by the attention of teenage schoolboys.
Michael O’Brien, defending, had accused Boy A of teenage boy bravado and claimed Boy B had chosen to “twist the dates” to say sex began earlier when he was still at school and aged 15.
Joynes wept as she told jurors the baby she had with Boy B was taken away from her hours after giving birth and she is now only allowed to see the child three times a week.
After the verdicts were delivered, her mother and father made no reaction in the public gallery but yards away the parents of the boys stifled cheers as Joynes was convicted.
Judge Kate Cornell thanked jurors and said she would need reports on the defendant before she can pass sentence in July.
She bailed Joynes, but warned her: “There’s a baby in this case who has done nothing wrong and is entirely innocent of all wrongdoing, and you will obviously want to see her before the sentence is passed, I do understand that.
“But you must be under no illusion what’s going to happen on the fourth of July.”
Jane Wilson, senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West, said: “Rebecca Joynes is 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. The CPS worked with Greater Manchester Police to build a strong case to put before the jury, including eyewitness testimony, phone evidence showing the messages sent by Joynes and CCTV footage.
“I would like to thank the victims for supporting the prosecution. Joynes will now face the consequences of her actions.”
