Teacher attempted to 'garner sympathy' with baby bonnet, jury hears

A teacher on trial for charges of sex with two teenage pupils has been accused of making "attempts to garner sympathy".

Rebecca Joynes, 30, denies six counts of engaging sexual activity with a child. Prosecutors made the claims during their closing speeches at Manchester Crown Court today, Wednesday, May 15.

Jurors heard legal directions from presiding judge Kate Cornell, who told them to "use common sense and knowledge of the world", and to "put aside their feelings" when it comes to judging the evidence in the case, reports Manchester Evening News.

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The allegations concern two teenage boys - who cannot be named for legal reasons - Joynes, from Wirral, met while she was a teacher at a Greater Manchester school. Jurors previously heard Ms Joynes allegedly groomed one pupil, Boy A, with a Trafford Centre shopping trip, before having sex with him. She denies any sexual activity ever took place.

The court previously heard how the 30-year-old admitted she had broken safeguarding rules as a teacher by being in contact with the boys on Snapchat and then having them back at her apartment in Salford Quays.

She was already suspended from her high school job and on bail for alleged sexual activity with boy A, 15, when she allegedly took the virginity of a second boy, known as boy B, 16, who she later became pregnant by.

Joynes denies any sexual activity took place with boy A, whose semen was recovered from her bedsheets, and that the relationship with boy B only began after he had left school and she had lost her job as a teacher, so no legal offence was committed as she was no longer in a position of trust.

In a closing speech for the prosecution, barrister Joe Allman reminded the jury of a term used by defence counsel, Michael O’Brien, in his cross examination of Boy B - namely gaslighting. Mr Allman described the term as a "combination of manipulation of the facts and maybe playing with people’s feelings".

He said: “Do you remember when Mr O’Brien rounded off his questions to Ms Joynes [during her evidence] with a series of questions about her baby? Her and Boy B’s baby.

“That caused her to descend into tears whilst she remained standing up with a baby’s bonnet tucked into her trousers. The questions were completely irrelevant, as were the answers.

“One of the very first things said to you by the judge was that sympathy had no place in these proceedings. That, the prosecution say, was a pretty naked attempt to garner sympathy. Who is gaslighting who?”

Jurors previously heard that Ms Joynes had taken Boy A to the Trafford Centre, during which she bought him a Gucci belt from Selfridges worth £345, before taking him back to her flat. The prosecutor said that this was ‘the most obvious example of grooming you can imagine’.

He then suggested to the jury: “How different would the situation be if she was not a woman, but a 30-year-old man and the allegations were against two girls?

“If he had just got out of a nine-year relationship and was lonely and he was getting a lot of attention and they were making inappropriate comments. He felt flattered by it. What then?

“What if he was charged and bailed, and breached that bail by getting into a relationship with a girl from the school?

“Would he have stood in that witness box and kept a baby’s bonnet tucked into his trousers, would he have thought that would have garnered sympathy?”

Mr Allman said this thought process "drags her real defence to light" - and said it was "uncomfortable" for Ms Joynes to hear.

The prosecutor added: “She tweaks her defence based on what she can come up with in the face of overwhelming evidence.” Adding that Ms Joynes was "not stupid".

He concluded his closing speech by claiming that some aspects of her defence were ‘completely spurious’. Joynes, of Pensby Road, Wirral, 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.

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