A teacher who had sex with two schoolboys and became pregnant by one of them has been jailed. Rebecca Joynes groomed both boys from the age of 15, first exchanging messages on social media, Manchester Crown Court heard. The 30-year-old was previously convicted of four counts of sexual activity with a child and two counts of sexual activity with another child. Joynes cried and shook in the dock as she was sentenced to six-and-a-half years.

In a victim impact statement, Boy B, who fathered Joynes’ child, said: “I struggled to come to terms with my abuse, I was completely in denial.” He said he felt he had “betrayed someone I love and done wrong by giving evidence” but had since realised “the full extent of the abuse carried out on me and the tactics that were used to do so”. He said he was "coerced, controlled, manipulated, sexually abused, and mentally abused", adding: "I will forever be Rebecca‘s victim and forever linked to her through our child.”

At the sentencing hearing, the judge, Kate Cornell, told Joynes: “You were the adult, the person in control. "You should have known better. You failed to enforce the boundaries of proper conduct but deliberately transgressed them.” The trial heard Joynes would "laugh off" inappropriate comments instead of shutting down the behaviour. She gave Boy A all but one of the digits of her mobile phone number as a maths problem-solving exercise in which he had to work out the final digit.

Det Con Beth Alexander, from Greater Manchester Police, said: “School should be a place of safety for children. “It’s clear from some of the public commentary when Joynes was convicted that there is still a lack of understanding when it comes to men and boys being the victims of sexual offences. “They have had to read comments stating others are ‘jealous’ of them, and that they should be’ happy a young female teacher was interested in them’, and this rhetoric is very damaging and dangerous. “Women can still be paedophiles; this term is not reserved only for men. Men and boys can still be victims of sexual abuse.”