Manchester teacher who groomed two boys jailed for six-and-a-half years

A teenage boy has described how he was “coerced, controlled, manipulated, sexually abused, and mentally abused” as the Manchester teacher who victimised him was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison.

Rebecca Joynes, 30, was found guilty of six counts of sexual activity with a child, two while in a position of trust, after a trial in May.

The secondary school teacher groomed two pupils from the age of 15, and was on bail for sexual activity with the first child, Boy A, when she began having sex with the second, Boy B, whose child she later gave birth to.

Sentencing Joynes at Manchester crown court, Judge Cornell told the defendant: “There is a breathtaking arrogance in your conduct. You were the adult. You were the person in control, the person who should have known better and entrusted by the school and the boys and by their parents of caring for their sons.

“Instead, you abused that position of trust and exploited the privileged role for your own sexual gratification.”

In a victim impact statement read in court by the prosecutor, Boy B said the grooming had meant he would “argue until I was blue in the face protecting [Joynes] and would not hear a bad word against her”.

He added: “I was coerced, controlled, manipulated, sexually abused and mentally abused. 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.

“This had a massive mental toll over me and my family. It tore my family apart, they struggled to come to terms with the fact they sent me to school, where they believed it to be a safe environment, and this happened as a result.”

Cornell told Joynes, who was crying as she was sentenced: “It may be asked what 15-year-old boy would not want to have sex with an older, attractive teacher? Surely they would be up for it. How can this be a crime?

“Well Miss Joynes, there is no doubt this is a crime. Both boys were very much victims, obviously unworldly and vulnerable to the advances from an older attractive woman.”

Joynes was also registered as a sex offender for life and issued with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years, plus a restraining order in relation to both boys.