Teacher Rebecca Joynes pictured shopping on final day of freedom

A teacher who had sex with two pupils was pictured shopping at a retail park hours before she is due back in court.

Rebecca Joynes, 30, from Wirral, preyed upon two boys while working as a teacher in Greater Manchester, engaging the second in a sexual relationship while on police bail for the first. Both boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were aged 15 and 16 at the time.

Joynes was convicted after trial in May of six counts of sexual activity with a child, with the court having heard details of Joynes felt "lonely" and "craved attention" at the time. Joynes had cultivated relationships with the boys over Snapchat, grooming them with attention and even buying one a £345 Gucci belt in a shopping trip to Selfridges in the Trafford Centre, the Mirror Online reports.

READ MORE: Rebecca Joynes victim, 'I realise I sacrificed 18 months to be with a paedophile'

READ MORE: Body found days before man's nine-hour standoff with police

Joynes was also accused of planning a "date night" with the second boy - who she began a relationship with while being investigated by police for the encounter with the first boy - that involved a scratch card of sexual activities, rose petals and hidden notes around the flat. On the same occasion, Joynes told the teenager she was pregnant by producing a baby grow.

The ex-high school teacher denied having committed an offence, instead admitting only to breaking safeguarding rules by speaking to the boys over Snapchat and having them at her flat.

Hours before her sentencing on Thursday, Joynes was seen spending her final moments of freedom at a retail park in Chester. Hiding beneath a baseball cap, Joynes was seen getting into a white car which appeared to be stuffed with her belongings.

She was released on bail by a judge in May after being convicted of the six counts of sexual activity with a child, two of which were while being a person in a position of trust, and is due back before Manchester Crown Court on Thursday for sentencing.

Judge Kate Cornell warned Joynes to expect prison for her offending. Addressing the defendant on May 17, the judge said: "There's a baby in this case who has done nothing wrong and is entirely innocent of all wrongdoing, and you will obviously want to see her before the sentence is passed, I do understand that. But you must be under no illusion what's going to happen on the fourth of July."

Don't miss the biggest and breaking stories by signing up to the Echo Daily newsletter here