A teacher has told a court she felt lonely and “liked” attention after a break-up but denies having sex with two teenage boys

Rebecca Joynes, 30, was suspended from her high school and on bail for sexual activity with Boy A, 15, when she allegedly took the virginity of another teen, aged 16, who she later became pregnant by.

Joynes denies any sexual activity took place, has pleaded not guilty to six charges of sexual activity with two teenagers, including two counts of sexual activity while being a teacher in a position of trust.

She is on trial at Manchester Crown Court and the teenagers cannot be identified.

Joynes took to the stand today with a pink baby’s bonnet tucked into the top of her trousers and prosecutor Joe Allman began his questioning by asking if she was trying to get sympathy from the jury.

“No. Definitely not,” the 30-year-old replied. “I sleep with this every night.”

Boy A stayed at the defendant’s flat and his semen was found on her bedsheets, Mr Allman said. He added that Boy B later went to her flat and she ended up becoming pregnant with his baby.

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The prosecutor asked: “Do you see the position differently because you are a woman and not a man?”

“No,” replied Joynes.

The court also heard that Boy A had lied to his mother to see Joynes, who took him to the Trafford Centre and bought him a £350 Gucci belt before taking him to her flat in Salford Quays.

Joynes said she was not “contemplating sex” when she did this.

Earlier in the day, Joynes faced questions from her own barrister and admitted swapping messages with Boy A on Snapchat.

She said they agreed he would stay at her flat – but that he slept on the sofa and they did not have sex.

The defendant said they were going to order food but Boy A said he wasn’t hungry and told her: “I think you know what I want to do?”

Joynes told the court she then “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,” she said.

“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.”

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When her barrister Michael O’Brien asked if there was anything she would change about her behaviour, the defendant replied: “Everything.”

“As a teacher I should never have engaged in any form of contact with a student,” she said.

“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.”

After rumours began to circulate, Joynes was arrested, suspended from her teaching job and bailed while police investigated her contact with Boy A.

While suspended, she swapped messages with Boy B on Snapchat – despite being ordered not to have contact with anyone under 18.

Joynes said she was “curious” about Boy B and “genuinely believed that he cared”.

She denies having sexual contact with Boy B before he had left school and said she only did so after she had been dismissed from her job as a teacher, and therefore was not in a position of trust.

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Breaking down in tears, she told the court what happened to the daughter she had with Boy B.

“An emergency court hearing was held and she was taken off me 24 hours after she was born,” she said.

“At the moment I have got contact with her three times a week for three hours. That’s it.”

The trial continues.

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