Moment teacher asks ‘are you serious?’ before being jailed for sex with boys
A maths teacher who had sex with two of her teenage pupils, becoming pregnant by one of them, has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Rebecca Joynes, 30, exchanged Snapchat messages with the boys before having sex with them separately at her apartment in Salford, Greater Manchester.
On one occasion, she took the first boy, named only as Boy A, shopping and bought him a £350 Gucci before spending the night at her home when he was 15.
They had unprotected sex twice, after which the boy is said to have told her: ‘I hope to God you don’t get pregnant.’
After police received a tip-off, his ‘distraught’ mother caught wind of the incident and stormed into school.
Joynes was suspended and bailed on condition she have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18, during which time she moved back in with her parents in the Wirral.
She then began a relationship with Boy B, who was 16 at the time, after he messaged her on Snapchat asking how she was.
Joynes later moved back to her flat in Salford Quays where she took Boy B’s virginity.
The teenager later told police they regularly had sex, including unprotected sex, while he was still at school, and that he saw the relationship as ‘friends with benefits’.
He said Joynes told him she could not have a baby, but she eventually became pregnant by him.
Joynes then invited the boy over for a ‘date night’ involving an Ann Summers scratchcard of sexual activities, with rose petals and notes hidden around her flat.
They led to ‘surprises’ which ended with a babygrow with the words ‘Best Dad’ emblazoned on the front.
A court heard the relationship went on for 18 months, continuing after the boy turned 18.
When police came to arrest her a second time, she kept them waiting while she carried ‘factory reset’ on her phone to wipe all messages.
Detectives were able to retrieve messages from her network provider.
Joynes gave birth to their son in early 2024 but he was taken away from her hours later.
During her trial she was accused of a ‘naked attempt to garner sympathy’ from the jury when she appeared with a pink baby bonnet belonging to their baby visibly tucked into her trousers.
She told jurors she was only allowed to see the child three times a week.
She denied having sex with Boy A and insisted she only began having sex with Boy B after he had turned 16 and left school, which would have been legal.
Joynes admitted letting boy A into her apartment and swapping messages with him but insisted she only did so because she was ‘lonely’ and ‘liked the attention’ after a previous nine-year relationship ended during the pandemic.
The court heard boys in her class told her she was ‘so sexy’ and nicknamed her ‘Bunda Becky’ in a slang-based reference to her bottom.
She wept as she told jurors: ‘I let my guard down. I caved into the attention he was giving me.’
Her defence barrister claimed Boy B and Joynes were in a misguided but ‘perfectly legal relationship’, and that the teenager chose to ‘twist the dates’ and ‘put the boot in’ after it ended.
The jury rejected the claims, finding Joynes guilty of six counts of engaging in sexual activity a child and two counts of sexual activity with a child whilst in a position of trust.
The age of consent for sexual activity is 16, but rises to 18 where it involves someone in a position of trust.
Passing sentence, Judge Kate Cornell said: ‘From the outside it might be easy to fall into misconception these two boys were not victims. It might be asked what 15 year-old wouldn’t want to have sex with their teacher.
‘Surely they were up for it, there is no crime. There Is no doubt this is a crime. They were vulnerable to advances from older attractive women.
‘Fifteen-year-old boys are no less susceptible to advances than 15-year-old girls. They are just as impressionable. They did not have self control or life experience to step back.’
Joynes wept from the dock as Justice Cornell blasted the ‘breathtaking gall’ and ‘arrogance’ she showed by breaching her bail, encouraging Boy B to lie to his parents and attempting to cover her tracks.
As Joynes wept from the dock, the judge told her: ‘Boy B felt you were deceiving, now he is an adult, he sees that.
‘You were the adult, the one in control and should have known better. You were trusted by the school, the boys and the parents, for caring and protecting their sons. You abused that trust and exploited that role for your sexual gratification.
‘It is inconceivable you did not realise that too. You deliberately transgressed them and encouraged boys to breach that too. You turned a blind eye.’
Joynes, who continued sobbing as she was led from the dock, was also subjected to a restraining order and has to sign the sex offenders register for life.
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