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A paedophile teacher who had sex with two teenage boys, having a baby with one, has been jailed for six and a half years.
Disgraced maths teacher Rebecca Joynes, 30, was convicted in April of six counts of sexual activity with children after sleeping with one pupil before falling pregnant by a second while on police bail.
The boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were 15 and 16 at the time.
Parents of both boys watched as Joynes, wearing a gold necklace, black padded jacket and with blonde highlights in her hair, visibly shook and broke down in tears as she was jailed at Manchester Crown Court.
Passing sentence, Judge Kate Cornell told the defendant: “There is a breathtaking arrogance in your conduct. You were the adult.
“You were the person in control, the person who should have known better and entrusted by the school and the boys and by their parents of caring for their sons.
“Instead, you abused that position of trust and exploited the privileged role for your own sexual gratification.”
Joynes wept as she was sentenced on Thursday morning at Manchester Crown Court following a two-week trial during which a jury heard she had cultivated relationships with the boys over flirty Snapchat messages.
She had groomed them with attention and bought one, called Boy A, a £350 Gucci belt during a trip to the Trafford Centre.
She then took the boy back to her flat in Salford Quays, where they had sex twice before Joynes told the teenager: “No one had better find out”. But the next day the boy’s mother spotted a love bite on her son’s neck and the police were called.
Joynes was suspended pending a police investigation, but that did not stop her from inviting the second pupil, Boy B, to her apartment for a “date night” that involved an Ann Summers scratchcard of sexual activities.
In a letter to the teenager, Joynes wrote: “Every inch of you is perfect. You are all I ever dream about.”
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.
She became pregnant with the boy and gave birth earlier this year, but the child was taken away from her within 24 hours.
The court heard Boy B’s life “will be forever different” after becoming a father at such a young age.
In a statement read to the court, he said: “I was coerced and controlled, manipulated, sexually abused, and mentally abused.”
Joynes was convicted of six counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, including two while being a person in a position of trust.
The trial heard how Joynes joined the school in 2018, as part of the Teach First teacher recruitment scheme after studying for a sports and exercise science degree at university in Liverpool.
But at the age of 28, the former childhood gymnast had undergone a messy break-up after a nine-year relationship, struggled during the Covid pandemic, and was lonely when she became “flattered” by the attention of teenage schoolboys.
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.
Judge Cornell said Joynes was a “high achiever” who had thrown her career away and had her baby taken away from her through her own actions.
She continued: “From the outside, it may be easy to fall into the misconception these boys were not victims.
“It may be asked what 15-year-old boy would not want to have sex with an older, attractive teacher? Surely they would be up for it? How can this be a crime?
“Well, Ms Joynes, there is no doubt this is a crime. Both boys were very much victims, obviously unworldly and vulnerable to the advances from an older, attractive woman.
“You felt buoyed and boosted by their attention. You were the one with the car, the flat, the money, the life experience.
“There’s no real insight from you, you continue to deny the offences and have been silent on the distressing impact on these boys.”
Jane Wilson, senior crown prosecutor for CPS North West, said: “Rebecca Joynes was in a position of trust as a high school teacher.
“She abused her position to groom and exploit two schoolboys in the worst way, with no thought for the lasting impact it would have on them.
“Every parent sends their children to school expecting them to be safeguarded and taken care of; Joynes’s actions have eroded that trust.”
