‘Sexual predator’ teacher threatened with prison

A young teacher who had sex with two teenage boys could face jail time when she is sentenced on Thursday.

“Sexual predator” Rebecca Joynes has been released on bail after being convicted, but a judge warned her that despite being a young mother to a child fathered by one of the boys, she should have “no illusions” about what to expect.

In May, the 30-year-old was found guilty by a jury at Manchester Crown Court of six sex offences following a two-week trial.

Joynes had been seducing her students since they were 15 and was out on bail for having sex with the first one, Boy A, when she began having sex with the second one, Boy B, by whom she became pregnant.

None of the boys can be identified.

Petite, soft-spoken and described by teenagers as “really pretty”, Joynes joined the school in 2018 through the Teach First teacher recruitment programme after completing a degree in sports and exercise science at the University of Liverpool.

But at 28, the former childhood gymnast was going through a difficult breakup after a nine-year relationship, struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and feeling lonely when she was “flattered” by the attention of teenage boys, her trial heard.

Joynes, who the boys called “Bunda Becky,” would “laugh off” inappropriate comments rather than stop the behavior.

Boy A got her cell phone number after she gave him all the digits except one as part of a math problem where he had to guess the last digit.

They met on Snapchat, and he sent her flirtatious messages. The pair agreed to meet in secret.

Boy A lied to his mother that he was staying with a friend after school on Friday to play Fifa. Instead, Joynes picked him up in her Audi A1 near her home, drove him to the Trafford Centre in Manchester and bought him a £350 Gucci belt.

Back at her flat in Salford Quays, they kissed and then had sex twice, after which Joynes told her boyfriend: “It’s best if no one finds out about this.”

The next day, the boy’s mother noticed a love bite mark on her son’s neck, and on Monday morning rumours began to circulate that Boy A’s distraught mother had rushed to the school reception because the police had been called.

Joynes was suspended from work and warned not to have any unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 while police investigated.

But then she started a relationship with Boy B.

He lied to his parents that he was going to watch the Manchester United game but instead went to Joynes’ flat where he lost his virginity to a teacher.

He later told police he considered their relationship to be “friends with benefits” and added that they had sex regularly while he was still at school.

He said Joynes told him she could not have a baby and they had unprotected sex, but it later turned out she was pregnant.

She invited Boy B over for a “date night” that included an Ann Summers scratch-off card with information about sexual activities, rose petals, and notes hidden throughout the apartment, leading to “surprises” that ended with a onesie with “Best Dad” written on the front.

In a letter to the teenager, Joynes wrote: “Every inch of you is perfect. You are everything I ever dreamed of.”

She gave birth to a son in early 2024, but the baby was taken from her within 24 hours.

During the trial, Joynes wore a pink baby bonnet tucked into her pants, visible to jurors, in a “shameless attempt to elicit sympathy,” prosecutor Joe Allman said.

She denied ever having sexual contact with Boy A and claimed that the sexual contact with Boy B only began after he had left school and she had been dismissed from her job, so no offence had occurred as she was no longer in a management position.

Joynes was convicted of six counts of having sexual intercourse with a child, including two counts when he was a person of trust.

Her sentence will be announced at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday.