A 15-year-old schoolboy who was allegedly ‘groomed’ by his maths teacher told his mother that claims the pair had sex were ‘just a stupid conversation’ on a group chat that ‘got out of control’, a court heard.
Rebecca Joynes, 30, is accused of having a sexual relationship with two pupils, including one who got her pregnant while she was on bail awaiting trial.
One schoolboy – known as Boy A – claims Joynes took him to Selfridges at the Trafford Centre and bought him a £345 belt before taking him back to her flat.
The prosecution allege that the pair then had sex twice after the teenager had lied to his mother about staying over at a friend’s house.
Joynes is on trial at Manchester Crown Court, and today Boy A denied claims that he ‘made up’ the allegations against Joynes because she had rejected his advances.
It is the third day in a row she has turned up to court wearing a baby’s bonnet tucked into the waistband of her trousers.
In a video cross-examination, Katy Appleton, defending, asked the teenager: ‘Were you concerned what your friends would say if they found out she had turned you down.’
‘No,’ he replied.
Ms Appleton, who suggested the boy’s claims about Joynes had boosted his ‘status’ at school, asked whether he had felt ’embarrassed’ and ‘angry’ that Joynes had ‘rejected’ him, which he also denied.
She then asked: ‘Did you feel you became more important or more popular as a result of what you say happened between you and Rebecca Joynes?’
‘No,’ the boy the replied.
Earlier, the court heard how the boy had attended ‘booster’ Maths lessons with Joynes and he admitted that he had joked with friends and his mother that she was ‘fit’.
Under further questions from Ms Appleton, the boy agreed that he had gone to Joynes flat because ‘he wanted something sexual to happen between them’.
But he denied asking her how many people she had slept with, and Joynes responding by saying ‘probably not as many as you have’.
It’s claimed the boy then said: ‘So, not many then – three.’
Ms Appleton asked the boy whether he had felt ’embarrassed’ about lying about having sex with Joynes after she had ‘reluctantly’ allowed him to stay the night at her flat as long as he slept on the couch.
But the boy denied this.
Ms Appleton said it was the defence’s case that ‘at no point’ did Joynes engage in sexual activity with the boy.
The boy’s friend, the court heard, had initially covered for him by going along with the story that he was staying with him.
But he later became concerned and asked his mother to drive them to collect the boy from Joynes’ flat.
He told the boy that Joynes had ‘groomed’ him, but he replied: ‘No I haven’t I was loving it.’
The friend’s mother then called the boy’s ‘hysterical’ mother to tell her what had happened and she had contacted the school.
The police were also informed, although the boy initially told his mum that it was ‘just a stupid conversation’ on a group chat that had ‘got out of control’.
Police launched an investigation in October 2021 and Joynes was subsequently charged over Boy A and suspended by her school.
She appeared at court and was bailed on condition she did not contact any child under 18, but the prosecution claim it then emerged she’d been in a long-term sexual relationship with a second pupil, Boy B.
It’s alleged she ‘brazenly’ pursued the relationship while on bail awaiting trial in relation to Boy A and had sex with Boy B at around 30 times and she became pregnant and had his child.
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 trial, expected to last two weeks, continues.