Jury told to treat teacher accused of having sex with pupils as ‘Robert Joynes’

A jury has been told to treat a teacher accused of having sex with pupils as “Robert Joynes” by prosecutors.

Rebecca Joynes, 30, was also accused of a “vain attempt to garner sympathy” from the jury by having a pink baby bonnet visibly tucked into the front of her trousers, belonging to to the child born to one of the teenagers she is accused of having sex with and whose virginity she took, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Joe Allman, prosecuting, told the court in his closing address: “She is aware of the optics here. She’s not stupid. Is Miss Joynes smarter than she lets on?

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Joynes, from Wirral, was already suspended from high school and on bail for alleged sexual activity with boy A, aged 15, when she allegedly began a sexual relationship with a second youth, boy B, by whom she later became pregnant . No teenager should be identified.

Jurors heard both boys sent her flirtatious Snapchat messages before Boy A was taken shopping, bought a £350 Gucci belt and returned to her flat in Salford Quays, where they had sex, and his sperm was later recovered by police bedding.

Boy B claims the sexual activity started when he was 15, with kissing and full sex, when he was 16 and still a student. Joynes claims no sexual activity took place with boy A and a relationship developed with boy B while she was suspended from work and only became sexual after she was fired and he left school at 16, so no offense occurred.

Mr Allman said of the baby bonnet Joynes wore: “It was a pretty hollow attempt to garner your sympathy.” He suggested that Boy B was accused of “grossing” her during their stormy relationship when she became pregnant.

Mr. Allman said: “Who is gaslighted and who does gaslighting? What’s going on here is, is she hoping that you’re going to treat her very differently because she’s a woman and not a man, and you’re going to see this case differently because she’s a woman and not a man?”

He asked if the boys would have been “scorned in the same way in an attempt to discredit you if it had been two girls of the same age”.

If petite Rebecca Joynes, described as “beautiful” and soft-spoken, had been “Robert” Joynes, a man in his 30s, and the plaintiffs had been girls, Mr Allman said they would not have been suggested because I am. “for that” or those who want sex, “because that would have been quite obscene”.

And he suggested that Joynes wanted jurors to forget that she was a responsible, mature adult teacher and the boys were teenage children and school students.

“It has the effect of distorting the image, so she almost becomes the victim and the boys become the perpetrators.”

He asked the jury of seven men and five women to imagine “Robert” as a 28-year-old teacher, just out of a nine-year relationship, single, good-looking, who is given a lot of attention, fawned over and i do it inappropriate comments at.

The prosecutor outlined a scenario in which the teacher exchanges Snapchat messages, buys a girl a £350 belt and takes her back to his flat while a second teenager becomes pregnant with ‘Robert’.

Mr Allman said: “Do you have any doubts about what happened here? You wouldn’t have an iota of sympathy for Robert. This thought experiment sheds light on Miss Joynes’ defense.”

Joynes earlier told the jury she had ruined her “dream job” with stupid “mistakes” by meeting the two teenagers and bringing them back to her flat, but denied having sex with the minors.

Both boys were 15 when Joynes began taking them each to her flat and both had been communicating with her on Snapchat – where the messages are deleted and cannot be retrieved by police.

In both cases, the activity was a secret from their parents and they both flirted with her, with Boy A calling her “sexy” and Boy B sending her a text saying, “Put your boobs out.”

Joynes admitted she broke up after a nine-year relationship, was single and flattered by the attention. In one letter, she wrote to boy B, saying: “Every inch of you is perfect. You are all I dream of.”

Joynes wept as she told jurors their baby was taken from her hours after birth and now has limited access, three times a week. She denies six charges of sexual activity with a child, including two while she was a person in a position of trust.

Michael O’Brien, in his closing speech for the defence, said Boy A lied about what happened between him and Joynes, while Boy B “put the boot on” while being interviewed by detectives.

He said meeting students outside of school was wrong but not a crime. Mr O’Brien said Boy A initially denied anything had happened, claiming it was all just “banter” with his friends getting out of hand.

Mr O’Brien said that after the contact between Boy A and Miss Joynes on Snapchat, the teenager bragged to his friends that he was “going to shoot” the teacher.

“Would he lose face with his friends if he said, ‘Well, guys, I’ve been told to sleep on the sofa’?”

And he said Boy B gave “vague and inconsistent answers” to questions. He said Joynes and Boy B were in a “perfectly legal relationship” which the teenager chose to “twist the dates” and “put the boot on” to say the sex started earlier when he was at school and was 15 years old.

The trial continues, with the jury expected to retire Thursday morning.

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