Predator trainer’s warped excuses for having intercourse with boys – together with pandemic

From the outside looking in, Rebecca Joynes was a model citizen and someone any parent would be proud of – but the chilling truth was much more disturbing.

Before being outed as a monster who had sex with two schoolboys, she was known as a secondary school maths teacher. She described it as a dream job and she was in a long-term relationship for much of her adult life.

You could even have sat beside her on a train and never suspect her of being someone who would tell a teenage boy: “Every inch of you is perfect. You are all I ever dream about.”

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But looks can be deceiving and Joynes was as twisted as they come. Today, the 30-year-old was 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.

So how did Joynes go from being a respected school teacher to a paedophile who got pregnant with a teenage boy she seduced?

As for a troubling justification for the latter, she told Manchester Crown Court: “This was a year after he left school. I was in love with him. I was pregnant with his child.”

Below, we look at how her once stable life crumbled away.

‘I was lonely and wanted attention’

During the trial, Joynes tried to argue that outside factors such as the pandemic and a breakup influenced her depraved decisions.

She was suspended from her job for sexual activity with boy A, 15. And it was during this suspension when she struck up a relationship with a second lad, boy B, 16, who she later had a baby with.

Asked what she would change about the way she acted, she said: “Everything. As a teacher I should never have engaged in any form of contact with a student. 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 of the time, which sounds awful.”

She also moaned that she “really struggled” with her breakup from her partner of nine years which was why she was so desperate to be liked. And feelings of loneliness and a desire for attention is something experts have cited for why some teachers become predators.

Joynes described making “stupid mistakes” because of loneliness and reflecting on her damaged life, she said in court: “Speaking to my family, I had made mistakes. I had basically ruined my chances with my dream job.”

Despite her weak excuses, she is unlikely to garner much sympathy from the British public.

Pregnant

She denied ever having sex with boy B while he was in school – but said she slept with him after she was sacked.

Boy B claimed they did have sex while he was still a schoolboy and the court heard how Joynes reportedly told him she would “harm herself or kill herself” if he left her.

Sexual Relationships

Joynes admitted that she exchanged Snapchat messages with boy A who called her “sexy” while boy B said: “Get your *** out.”

Asked whether this was appropriate on her part, she said: “Absolutely not, as a professional teacher I should never have engaged in that. I have to take accountability for that.”

It was also revealed during the trial that Joynes bought boy A a Gucci belt worth £345 before taking him to her flat in Salford where they allegedly had sex twice.

During one alleged encounter, boy A also told her “I’m not old enough to drive” before she apparently replied: “Oh, shut up. Stop saying that.”

Boy A also spoke about kissing on the edge of her bed before adding: “She took her jacket off and took her stuff off. As she was getting undressed she said, ‘No one had better find out.’ He claimed oral sex then followed and he added: “She said, ‘how do you want to do it then?”‘

Baby

Joynes was also accused of inviting boy B to her home where she had a scratchcard of sexual activities.

She also had rose petals and hidden notes scattered before producing a baby grow. Boy B said: “At the end it was a baby grow. It said something like, ‘Best Dad’ and I was like, What the f***.’ She started crying and I started crying, because we were undecided whether to get rid of it or not.”

Joynes, who arrived in court with a pink baby bonnet tucked into her trousers, gave birth to a baby girl in January but she sobbed as she revealed she was taken from her care 24 hours after she was born.

The teacher will be sentenced at a later date after today being found guilty of a string of sex offences.