A 30-year-old former British teacher, Rebecca Joynes, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for engaging in sexual relationships with two underage students.
According to Mail online News, Joynes, who was arrested and released on bail, continued to abuse one of the students while awaiting trial, becoming pregnant with his child.
The victims’ parents were present in court as Joynes broke down in tears, and one of the victims shared a statement detailing the emotional impact of the abuse.
Arranging an after-school liaison on a Friday, Joynes whisked the youngster – known as Boy A – to Manchester’s Trafford Centre where she bought him a £345 Gucci belt from Selfridges – a moment caught on ‘crystal clear’ CCTV.
She drove him in her white Audi to her one-bedroom flat in trendy Salford Quays where they had sex twice. Word of the liaison spread over the weekend, and on Monday she was sent home from school – with police filmed going to her home to arrest her.
Joynes – who pupils referred to as ‘Bunda Becky’ – was released on bail, ordered not to contact any child under 18 and suspended from her job.
But while awaiting trial, she ‘quite brazenly’ embarked on a long-term sexual relationship with another boy she had taught, referred to as Boy B. She then revealed to him that she was pregnant in a game of ‘surprises’ – which ended with her handing him a baby grow decorated with the words ‘Best Dad’.
Joynes is not the only British teacher to have betrayed the trust of their pupils and denigrated the profession in recent years, with high school teacher Ieuan Bartlett, 29, jailed this year after having sex with a ‘vulnerable’ girl.
Teaching assistant Kandice Barber was jailed for six years and two months in 2021 for having sex with a 15-year-old pupil in a field, while Fatinham Hossain – a cover teacher – abused a boy before attempting to bully him into silence.
And in a particularly notorious case, maths teacher Jeremy Forrest abducted a 15-year-old schoolgirl before fleeing to France in September 2012.
Parents of Joynes’ victims watched today as the former teacher, 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 today at Manchester Crown Court.
Passing sentence, Judge Kate Cornell told the defendant: ‘There is a breathtaking arrogance in your conduct. You were the adult.
‘I was in love with Rebecca and struggled to come to terms with my abuse – I was completely in denial. I subsequently held back and did not fully open up to people. Rebecca was in my head that much, I would argue until I was blue in the face protecting her and would not hear a bad word against her. I felt as so I had betrayed someone I love and had done wrong by giving evidence. I felt a large sense of guilt for a long time. 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 realise the full extent of the abuse carried out on me and the tactics that were used to do so.
‘I was coerced and controlled, manipulated, sexually abused and mentally abused. it is very upsetting.”