Rebecca Joynes trial: How maths teacher with dream job became sexual predator who groomed her pupils

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Rebecca Joynes was overjoyed to land her “dream job” when she became a teacher in a secondary school.

But six years later, her career is in ruins and she faces the prospect of a prison sentence. Branded a “predator” after abusing her position of trust to have sex with two pupils, she was convicted on Friday following a two-week trial and now awaits her fate.

Joining her school as part of a recruitment scheme in 2018, she soon caught the attention of male pupils, with her first victim telling his mother that she was “really fit” and that all the boys fancied her.

But her trial heard Joynes’ life began to unravel when a nine-year relationship with her ex-partner came to a messy end, compounded by loneliness during the Covid pandemic.

She faced inappropriate comments from her pupils at school and was dubbed “Bunda Becky”, a slang term for her backside.

But rather than shutting the boys down, instead she exchanged flirty Snapchat messages with two of the teenagers, which then turned into walks and then meetings at her flat. She went on to have sex with two underage schoolboys, eventually falling pregnant by one of them.

Joynes admitted she had broken safeguarding rules as a teacher by being in contact with the teenagers and then having them back at her apartment, telling the jury that she had ruined her job with “stupid mistakes”.

However, during the trial she 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 insisted no offence had taken place.

A jury disagreed and on Friday 17 May at Manchester Crown Court, Joynes was found guilty of six counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, including two while being a person in a position of trust.

During her trial, prosecutor Joe Allman pointed out similarities in the cases of both victims. He said both boys were 15 when she began taking each one into her flat and both had been communicating with her on Snapchat – where messages are deleted and not recoverable by police.

In both cases, the activity was a secret from their parents and they both flirted with her, boy A, calling her “sexy” and boy B, sending her a message saying, “Get your t**s out”. Mr Allman asked: “What did you reply?” Joynes replied: “Laughing faces.”

She had initiated contact with boy A by giving him all but one of the digits to her mobile number and as a problem-solving exercise he had to work out the final digit.

The flirty texts ensued and two weeks later the youngster lied to his mother that he was staying at a friend’s house to play computer games after school finished on Friday.

Instead, Joynes picked him up near his home in her Audi A1, took him to the Trafford Centre and bought him a £350 Gucci belt. On the way Joynes laughed and said, “Oh shut up!” when boy A, referring to driving, said, “I’m not old enough”.

After taking him to her flat, they had sex twice with Joynes warning: “No one had better find out”. The next day, his mother spotted a love-bite on her son’s neck while rumours began to circulate in school after boy A took a photo on his Snapchat.

Police received a tip-off and Joynes was suspended while the investigation continued, with boy A’s semen recovered from bed sheets seized at the teacher’s flat.

Joynes returned to live at home with her parents in Wirral after suffering a “breakdown”. Boy B messaged her on Snapchat asking how she was. “I genuinely thought he cared,” Joynes told jurors.

The youngster had lied to his parents that he was going to watch a Manchester United football game one evening. Instead, Joynes picked him up in her car and took him back to her apartment. He said he and Joynes had sex around 30 times before her arrest and that he initially viewed the relationship as “friends with benefits”.

Boy B said Joynes had told him she could not have a baby and they had unprotected sex, but later she discovered she was pregnant.

Jurors heard that the relationship soured, with frequent rows over whether to have an abortion, with Joynes becoming jealous and controlling.

In a bid to save the relationship – 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 was a babygrow saying Best Dad on the front. “I was like, ‘What the f***!’,” boy B told police during his interview.

In a letter to boy B, she also wrote: “Every inch of you is perfect. You are all I ever dream about.”

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. She was accused of attempting to garner sympathy from the jury by carrying around a pink bonnet with her, which was tucked into her trousers.

She said she felt lonely, let her guard down and “caved in” to the attention she was getting, making mistakes by meeting youngsters out of school, but denied wrongdoing.

Found guilty of serious offences by the jury she now faces a significant period behind bars, with her actions branded as predatory by the crown prosecution service.

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.”

Joynes is due to be sentenced at a date to be fixed.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rebecca-joynes-teacher-sex-court-guilty-b2546277.html