Teacher Rebecca Joynes faces lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty of sex with schoolboys

A female maths teacher is facing a lengthy jail term after being convicted of having sex with two schoolboys.

Rebecca Joynes, 30, gave birth to a baby by one of the boys earlier this year, who the judge described as “entirely innocent” before warning the mother that “you must be under no illusion what’s going to happen” when sentenced.

Joynes earned the nickname “Bunda Becky” – a reference to her bottom – from students, and blamed being lonely during the Covid lockdown for taking the 15-year-old boys back to her Salford Quays apartment.

After a two-week trial, she was unanimously found guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.

Joynes closed her eyes and grimaced, before beginning to shake as she stood in the dock as the verdicts were returned. The jury of seven men and five women had deliberated for just over a day.

Her father Stuart, 54, and mother Mel, 55, showed no reaction. However, yards away, the parents of the boys stifled cheers as Joynes was convicted.

Judge Kate Cornell said she would need reports on the defendant before she could 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 July 4.”

Joynes’s family run a tea room in the Wirral. Neither of the boys, nor the school they attended, can be identified for legal reasons.

The court was told Joynes had “groomed” a 15-year-old pupil, named only as Boy A, by sharing her mobile telephone number and communicating with him on Snapchat.

She had given the boy 10 digits and “challenged” him to guess the final one before beginning to communicate with him on social media.

The pair agreed to go shopping at the Trafford Centre, where she bought him a £350 Gucci belt.

He told police he lied to his mother about staying at a friend’s house but that evening went to Joynes’ apartment where they twice had sex, the jury found.

Joynes told the court the boy had said to her at the apartment in October 2021: “I think you know what I want to do.”

The boy later said that she had warned him: “No one had better find out.”

The court heard that after they had had sex, she sent him a message with a heart and three kisses.

“As a teacher I should never have engaged in any form of contact with a student,” she told the jury, insisting he merely stayed the night despite it breaching all safeguarding rules.

Boy’s mother ‘distraught’

Rumours spread among the boys’ friends and police received an anonymous tip-off via Childline about the “relationship”.

Joynes was promptly arrested and suspended from her job.

The court heard how days after spotting a love bite on her son’s neck, Boy A’s mother became “distraught” when she learned her son had stayed at his teacher’s home.

“I was upset and crying at this point. Crying my eyes out,” her statement said.

Despite a series of “no comment” interviews, CCTV footage was obtained showing Joynes in the Gucci shop with the boy. The boy’s semen was later found on her bed sheets.

Her phone was seized, but by then she had reset it to factory settings.

However, a Snapchat message emerged showing that she sent him the heart and three kisses.

The case took a remarkable turn when police learned of allegations that she was in a relationship with another teenager, a 16-year-old known only as Boy B, despite her bail conditions stipulating that she should not have any unsupervised contact with anyone under 18.

Boy B had sent the teacher Snapchat messages, one of which said: “Get your tits out.”

She replied, “Not tonight,” and later sent him a picture of her bottom wearing only knickers.

The relationship lasted about 18 months, during which time they had sex 30 times, culminating with Joynes giving birth to their baby in 2024. Boy B was 17 when she became pregnant.

Joynes told the court she had felt “lonely” owing to the Covid lockdown and that Boy B had offered her emotional support after a long-term relationship breakup.

She told the court: “I let my guard down. I caved in to the attention he was giving me.

“I struggled massively over the Covid period. I think I was obviously lonely and I liked the attention at the time, which sounds awful.”

Teacher was ‘controlling and emotional’

Boy B said the relationship was “weird” because Joynes was controlling and emotional.

Despite initially telling police the relationship began after he was 16 when she had left the school, he then claimed it began when he was 15.

“Now I think about it, it was emotional abuse,” he said in a police interview. “She just basically mentally abused me. Then I sacrificed 18 months for a paedophile.”

He said he had met Joynes at her apartment when just 15 and she “straddled” him and they kissed. At a later date, when he was still 15, he said they kissed at her flat and he caught Covid from her.

She sent him a message which read: “Every inch of you is perfect. You are all I ever dreamed of.”

She revealed she was pregnant by presenting him with a Victoria’s Secret scratchcard with sexual fantasies to act on.

She scattered rose petals in the flat for a “date night”, ordered a food delivery from Pizza Express and left a “trail of surprises” with the last being a baby grow with the words “I love my daddy”, the court was told.

Boy B said that Joynes was “very jealous and controlling of him”, the jury heard.

Earlier this year, she gave birth to their baby, but a special court hearing removed the baby from her. She is allowed access three times a week.

The jury was told that it was a criminal offence for a teacher – “whether suspended or not” – to have “sexual contact” with a pupil under the age of 18.

She insisted that she only had sex with Boy B after he left school and after she was dismissed, which was therefore legal.

Her legal team unsuccessfully tried to claim that she could not be guilty of sexual conduct with Boy B because she had been suspended.

Joynes arrived each day at court with a pink knitted baby bonnet tucked into the top of her trousers, a move the prosecution claimed was an attempt to garner sympathy.

After the hearing, Jane Wilson, the 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.”