Teacher accused of ‘sex with students’ denies ‘powerful sexual attraction to boys aged 15’ as she begins evidence
13 May 2024, 15:42 | Updated: 14 May 2024, 09:08
A maths teacher accused of having sex with two students has denied having a 'powerful sexual attraction to boys aged 15' as she began giving evidence at her trial today.
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Rebecca Joynes, 30, is on trial accused of six counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child, including two while being a person in a position of trust. She denies all charges.
The allegations relate to her relationship with two students - identified as Boy A and Boy B - whilst a teacher at a Greater Manchester School, including one whom she fell pregnant with while awaiting trial on bail.
Beginning her evidence today, Joynes stood in the witness box to answer questions from her own defence and the prosecution, with a pink baby's bonnet tucked into the top of her trousers.
She told the court that her daughter - whom she had with Boy B - was taken from her 24 hours after her birth in an "emergency court hearing". She said she has contact with her daughter "three times a week for three hours".
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Beginning his questioning, Joe Allman asked if the teacher was trying to get sympathy from the jury with the bonnet.
"No. Definitely not," she replied. "I sleep with this every night."
Mr Allman continued: "When an adult has an inappropriate relationship with a child, of 13, 14, 15, that's the adult's responsibility, nothing to do with the child being provocative, or making the first move, or trying to get the adult's number, is it?"
"No," Joynes replied.
Mr Allman then asked: "Did you have a powerful sexual attraction to boys aged 15?"
"Not at all," Joynes said.
Mr Allman said Boy A stayed at the teacher's flat where his semen was found on her bed sheets. He told the court that Boy B went back to her flat and she became pregnant by the student.
"Do you see the position differently because you are a woman and not a man?," the prosecutor asked.
"No," replied Joynes.
Mr Allman then reminded jurors Boy A had lied to his mother to see Joynes who picked him up in her car and took him to the Trafford Centre where she bought him a £350 Gucci belt before going back to her flat in Salford Quays.
"And you say you were not contemplating sex?" Mr Allman said - as Jonynes again replied: "No."
"Does lying come quickly to you?" he asked.
"No. Definitely not," Joynes said.
Joynes also answered questions from her own barrister Michael O'Brien where she admitted to messaging Boy A over Snapchat and agreeing that he could stay at her flat. She claimed he slept on her sofa, thought, and denied they had sex.
She told the court that she was planning to order some food but Boy A said he was not hungry, claiming he told her: "I think you know what I want to do?"
Joynes continued: "I laughed awkwardly and went to join him on the couch. He asked me how many people I had slept with. I said, probably not as many as you have.
"I thought he wanted something to happen. There was no way that was going to happen. I explained I had been in a nine-year relationship and really struggled with the break-up and I'm not that kind of person.
"I told him nothing sexual was going to happen."
Her defence then asked if there was anything she would change about how she behaved.
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 at the time, which sounds awful."
Joynes was arrested in October 2021 after a police investigation into her contact with Boy A. She is then accused of being in a sexual relationship with Boy B while on bail.
She did, however, admit to being in contact with Boy B on Snapchat despite being ordered not to have contact with anyone under 18.
The teacher said she was "curious" about Boy B contacting her on Snapchat and they "opened up" to each other as friends.
"I genuinely believed that he cared," she said - denying any sexual contact before Boy B had left school and only had sex with him after she had been dismissed from her job and no longer a teacher.
Joynes later gave birth to a daughter she had with Boy B.
The trial continues.
