Maths teacher Rebecca Joynes, 30, who is accused of sleeping with two of her 15-year-old pupils is trying to seek ‘sympathy’ and painting herself as the ‘victim’ because she is a woman, court hears

 A ‘pretty’ maths teacher who is accused of having a sexual relationship with two pupils has been accused of seeking ‘sympathy’ and painting herself as the ‘victim’ because she is a woman, a court heard.

Rebecca Joynes, 30, is said to have ‘groomed’ one 15-year-old boy by taking him on a shopping trip and buying him a £345 Gucci belt before they had sex at her apartment.

She then became pregnant after allegedly starting a relationship with a second 15-year-old boy while she was on bail over those allegations.

Joynes denies her relationship with the first boy – known as Boy A – ever became sexual and claims she only had sex with the second boy, Boy B, after he had turned 16 and she had been sacked from her job – meaning she was no longer in a position of trust.

She’s on trial at Manchester Crown Court where today the jury heard final speeches from prosecution and defence counsel.

Joe Allman, prosecuting, said Joynes’ tears in court and her display of a pink baby bonnet, which she has worn tucked into the front of her trousers for every day of her, trial was an attempt to win ‘sympathy’ from the jury.

And he accused her of ‘gaslighting’ – a claim she had made about the two schoolboys.

‘One of the very first things her honour said to you was sympathy has no place in these proceedings,’ he said.

‘You are here to clinically analyse the evidence.’

He added: ‘It was a pretty naked attempt to garner your sympathy.’

The court previously heard how court proceedings led to Joynes having her baby ‘taken off’ her 24 hours after she was born.

 ‘Who is being gaslighted, and who is doing the gaslighting?’ he asked.

He said’ ‘Is it possible her approach to these proceedings is that she hopes you will treat her differently because she is a woman and not a man in the same situation.’

Mr Allman said Joynes hoped she would be ‘treated very differently’ and they would see the evidence ‘differently’ because she is a woman and not a man in the same situation.

‘We have to ask in the cold light of day would Miss Joynes and those acting on her behalf appealed to your sympathy in that way if she’d been a 30-year-old man called Robert Joynes?’ he asked.

He also asked whether the two boys would have ‘been disparaged in the same way in attempt to discredit them’ if they had been two girls of a similar age.

‘Would the defence on Miss Joynes’ behalf – in our theoretical scenario on Mr Joynes’ behalf – have suggested to you that the girls the were the ones that wanted it to happen?’ he asked.

‘It just could just not have taken the same lines in questions because it would have been quite obscene.’

He said it was easy to forget that Joynes was a mature, adult teacher, he said, and they were two teenage children and ‘that’s how she would like you to see this case.’

‘So, she almost becomes the victim and the boys become the perpetrators,’ he said.

Police launched an investigation after rumours spread around her school and she was subsequently arrested and suspended from her job in October 2021 and sacked in July 2022.

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 continues.