A predatory math teacher has been found guilty of having sex with two teenage boys she taught at their high school.
Rebecca Joynes, 30, had already been suspended from her high school job and released on bail after engaging in sexual activity with the 15-year-old boy, when she began a sexual relationship with the second child, Boy B, whom she later became pregnant.
Despite having unprotected sex with Boy B after telling him she couldn't get pregnant, towards the end of their relationship she surprised him with a baby grow and said "Best Dad", leaving him distraught.
Jurors heard that both boys, who cannot be identified because of their ages, had sent Joynes flirty Snapchat messages before she invited them to her flat for sexual encounters.
Softly spoken and described by the teenagers as 'very beautiful', Joynes closed her eyes and grimaced before visibly shaking as she stood in the dock as the jury foreman delivered the guilty verdicts on Friday after a two-week trial.
In Boy A's case, she gave him all but one digit of her phone number, and as a problem-solving exercise he had to work out the last digit.
They connected over Snapchat and he sent her flirty texts in which the pair agreed to meet in secret. She then took him shopping and bought him a £350 Gucci belt and returned to her flat in Salford Quays, where he said they had sex, with his semen later recovered from her sheets by police.
Boy B said sexual activity started when he was 15, with kissing and full-blown sex when he was 16 and while he was still a student.
Joynes said she had a "breakdown" after being suspended following the police investigation into her relationship with Boy A, and moved back to her parents on the Wirral.
She was at a low point when Boy B messaged her on Snapchat asking how she was doing. "I really thought he cared," Joynes said. Soon boy B also sent a message: "Get your tits out," Joynes replied: "Not tonight."
After his birthday, Boy B lied to his parents and told them he was going to watch a Manchester United match, but instead went back to Joynes' apartment.
He told the judges how he was "nervous" when he lost his virginity to Joynes, warning her: "Don't expect anything big, I'm only 16".
As he undressed, Joynes said, "Oh! You lied to me."
He later told police he considered the relationship "friends with benefits" and said they had sex regularly while he was still in school.
The relationship also deteriorated, with frequent arguments, as Joynes became jealous and controlling, he claimed.
In an attempt to save the relationship, and just a day before Joynes was arrested for the second time, she invited boy B for a 'date night' with an Ann Summers scratch card of sexual activities, rose petals and hidden notes around her flat, which led to "surprises" that he played with and followed.
In the end it was a baby grow, with the text 'Dear Dad' on the front. "I thought, 'What the f***!'" Boy B told police.
In a letter to boy B, Joynes wrote: "Every inch of you is perfect. You are the only thing I ever dream of."
Joynes had claimed that no sexual activity ever took place with Boy A and that a relationship developed with Boy B while she was suspended and only became sexual after she was fired and he had left school at 16, so there had been no violation occurred.
The defendant was found guilty at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday of six charges of sexual activity with a child, including two while a person in a position of trust, following a trial following nine hours of deliberation.
Joe Allman, prosecuting, previously told jurors that the defendant hoped they would see the case differently because she is a woman and not a man.
He wondered why inappropriate Snapchats, comments and the boys calling her "Bunda Becky" were not immediately "shut down" by the teacher, and wondered if she was attracted to teenage boys.
She was also accused of a "naked attempt to gain sympathy" from the jury by visibly tucking a pink baby hat into her trousers.
Earlier, Joynes told the jury she ruined her "dream job" with stupid "mistakes" by meeting the two teenagers and getting them back into her flat, but she denied sex with minors.
Joynes joined the school in 2018 as part of the Teach First teacher recruitment program after studying sports and exercise science.
She said she was 28, had suffered a messy break-up after the end of a nine-year relationship, was struggling during the Covid pandemic and was lonely when she became "flattered" by the attention of teenage schoolboys.
Michael O'Brien, defending, had accused Boy A of teenage bravado and claimed Boy B had chosen to "twist the dating" by saying the sex started earlier, when he was still at school and aged 15 .
Joynes cried as she told jurors that the baby she had with Boy B was taken from her hours after giving birth and that she is now only allowed to see the child three times a week.
After the verdicts were handed down, her father and mother did not react in the public gallery, but just yards away the boys' parents stifled cheers as Joynes was sentenced.
Judge Kate Cornell thanked jurors and said she needs reports on the defendant before handing down a verdict in July.
She released Joynes on bail, but warned her: 'This case involves a baby who has done nothing wrong and is completely innocent of any wrongdoing. You will obviously want to see her before the verdict is pronounced, I understand that.
"But you shouldn't have any illusions about what will happen on July 4."
Jane Wilson, chief prosecutor at CPS North West, said: "Rebecca Joynes is a sexual predator. Joynes was given the responsibility to teach and protect children. She abused her position to groom and ultimately sexually exploit schoolboys.
"Her behavior has had a lasting impact on them. The CPS worked with Greater Manchester Police to build a strong case to present to the jury, including eyewitness statements, telephone evidence showing messages sent by Joynes and CCTV footage.
"I would like to thank the victims for their support of the prosecution. Joynes will now face the consequences of her actions."
