Teacher accused of sex with children ‘laughed when boy said he’s not old enough’

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

Pat Hurst
Thursday 09 May 2024 11:16
Teacher on trial: Rebecca Joynes leaves Manchester Crown Court after her first hearing
Teacher on trial: Rebecca Joynes leaves Manchester Crown Court after her first hearing (Steve Allen)

A teacher accused of having sex with teenage boys laughed and said “Oh shut up!” when one said, “I’m not old enough,” a court heard.

Rebecca Joynes made a comment about driving after picking a 15-year-old boy up after school in her car and going to her flat where they had sex, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The boy, known only as Boy A, said he would not know about that as he was too young to drive – which Joynes while laughing replied, “Oh shut up! Stop saying that!” it is alleged.

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 became pregnant by a second teenage boy, boy B, while she was on bail for allegedly having sex with boy A, a jury has heard.

On the second day of the trial jurors watched the video interview boy A gave to police officers.

Boy A told police Joynes had given him 10 of the 11 digits of her phone number and he worked out the missing digit to first make contact with her.

Within days they were exchanging Snapchat messages and after finishing school on a Friday afternoon he went home, changed out of his school uniform and Joynes picked him up at a pre-arranged point in her white Audi A1 car.

The police officer asks boy A: “What were you wanting to happen?”

He replied: “To be honest, I was not expecting that to happen, what happened. I didn’t expect anything.”

“What were you hoping to happen?” the officer continued.

“I don’t know,” the boy said, adding: “But anyone in my position, when you are my age, my year. If you ever see her – she is good looking.”

Boy A said he expected to do what had been planned – go to the Trafford Centre and back to her flat.

He said: “I remember her saying you might as well come to her apartment, and I said, I may as well stay.

“She said, ‘OK. That works for me.”

Joynes leaves Manchester Crown Court with her father after first hearing (Steve Allen)

After picking the youngster up, Joynes then drove to pick her dog up from day care and dropped it off with her parents in Wirral telling the boy she had arranged for them to have it overnight.

He did not see the hand over to her mother as Joynes parked in another street, “probably because how young I look,” the boy said.

Boy A told the officer about a conversation on the journey.

He said: “She said something about driving. I went, ‘I wouldn’t know because I’m not old enough,’ and she said, ‘Oh shut up’ laughing, said something like, ‘Stop saying that’ but laughing.”

After visiting the Trafford Centre where the youngster said Joynes bought him a £345 Gucci designer belt they went back to her flat at Salford Quays where they twice had sex, it is alleged.

However rumours began to circulate and a police investigation followed as the defendant was suspended by her school and later she told police that no sexual activity had taken place.

She was subsequently bailed on condition she have no unsupervised contact with anyone aged under 18.

But it later emerged that Joynes had been in a long-term sexual relationship with another teenage boy she had been in contact with while suspended.

The youngster is the father of Joynes’s young daughter.

Joynes claims sexual activity with Boy B did not start until he turned 16.

Neither boy must be publicly identified by law.

Joynes denies two counts of sexual activity with Boy A, two counts of sexual activity with Boy B and two counts of sexual activity with Boy B while being a person in a position of trust.

The two-week trial continues.

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