Inside the Sordid Case of a Predator Teacher Who Had Teen's Baby, Then Cried in Court During Sentencing

Rebecca Joynes, 30, was convicted of multiple sex crimes against children and sentenced to more than six years in prison

A teacher in England was sentenced to over six years in prison after grooming two of her 15-year-old students, sexually abusing them and even having the baby of one of her victims.

Manchester high school teacher Rebecca Joynes, 30, was first arrested back in October 2021. According to Greater Manchester Police, she was first arrested on suspicion of sexual activity with a child after authorities received a tip about her abuse of a teenager who the U.K. courts have called “Boy A” to protect his identity.

Later on, the math teacher would face charges 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.

When her trial began in May 2024, jurors heard about Joynes’ background: Although she first became a teacher in 2018, her two victims said the abuse began in 2021, after their school had returned to in-person learning following COVID lockdowns, per Yahoo News.

Then 28, Joynes had just a ended nine-year relationship and was “flattered” by the attention she was getting from her teenage students, prosecutors said at trial, the BBC reported. She became interested in one student in particular, prosecutors said, and she eventually gave her phone number to Boy A with one condition — her number was missing one digit, which the then-15-year-old had to figure out himself as a math exercise.

Joynes and Boy A then connected over Snapchat and exchanged flirty messages, before agreeing to meet up outside of school. According to police, the teenager even lied to his parents about his whereabouts so that his teacher could take him shopping at Manchester’s Trafford Centre mall — where Joynes was caught on CCTV cameras smirking as she bought him a £350 (about $450) Gucci belt. She later sexually abused him twice at her home, police said.

At one point, when the boy said he wasn’t old enough to drive them from their school to her home, Joynes said, “Oh shut up!” The Times and the BBC reported, citing court testimony.

Related: Teacher Accused of Sexually Abusing Boy Allegedly ‘Laughed’ When He Mentioned His Age: ‘Oh, Shut Up’

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Around the time of her October 2021 arrest, Joynes was suspended from her role at the school and was told to not have any contact with anyone under the age of 18 as a part of her bail. Joynes didn’t follow the guideline set by police, however: Soon after, she began exchanging messages with “Boy B,” then 15, over Snapchat, according to the BBC.

According to police, Joynes also sexually abused Boy B several times, and she told him that she could not become pregnant. During the trial, she claimed that they only had sexual contact after she had left her job.

Boy B disputed this, however, telling jurors that he had lied in his first interview with police about the timeline of events because he had just found out that Joynes was pregnant.

The Independent and Manchester Evening News reported that the former teacher had Boy B over for a “date night,” during which she decorated her apartment with rose petals and clues leading to “surprises” — one of which was a baby’s onesie reading “Best Dad,” which was her way of surprising him with the pregnancy, the boy told police.

“I questioned if I was right to give statements about the woman who was carrying my child, since then I have replayed a lot of things in my head, and spoken to a lot of people, and it has made me [realize] the full extent of the abuse carried out on me and the tactics that were used to do so,” Boy B wrote in a victim impact statement given during the sentencing, per police.

According to the BBC, Joynes was arrested for breaking her bail conditions and spent five months in prison, until she received bail in November 2023.

Police said that Joynes and Boy B’s child, a baby girl, was born in early 2024, but was taken following an emergency court hearing 24 hours after the birth.

In his victim impact statement, Boy B wrote that “one of the hardest things I had to deal with in this time” was Joynes’ decision to not allow him to be involved with her pregnancy. According to the teenager, he was denied information about doctor’s appointments and check-ups — even information such as the gender and due date.

Following her trial in May — during which Joynes was accused of attempting to garner sympathy by tucking a pink baby’s bonnet into her waistband — she was found guilty of all charges, with judge Kate Cornell scolding her as she wept.

“You felt buoyed and boosted by their attention,” Cornell told the former teacher, per the BBC. “There’s no real insight from you, you continue to deny the offenses and have been silent on the distressing impact on these boys.”

Joynes will be required to register as a sex offender for life, and was issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years as well as restraining order from both boys, the The Guardian reported.

“I was coerced, controlled, manipulated, sexually abused, and mentally abused,” Boy B’s victim impact statement said. “It is very upsetting that this has happened to me. The months after the abuse happened to me, was a very dark time, I felt backed into a corner.”

“I had just lived a double life for 18 months behind my family’s back,” he added.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

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Read the original article on People.