A disturbing video has surfaced showing a teacher buying a £345 Gucci belt for a 15-year-old student, a calculated step in a grooming scheme that ended in sexual abuse. Rebecca Joynes, a 30-year-old former mathematics teacher from Greater Manchester, UK, was convicted in May 2024 of six counts of sexual activity with two teenage boys. The CCTV footage, captured at Selfridges in Manchester’s Trafford Centre, reveals the chilling moment she groomed one of her victims, known as Boy A, before taking him to her apartment for sex.
The footage, released by Greater Manchester Police after Joynes’s sentencing on July 4, 2024, shows her smirking and exchanging flirtatious glances with the boy as he tries on the luxury belt. Dressed in a turquoise jacket and green shirt, Joynes leans in, folds her arms, and pays for the £345 purchase with her card. The boy, whose face is blurred for anonymity, carries the Gucci bag as they leave the store. Later footage shows them entering her Salford Quays apartment, where the abuse took place. Prosecutors called the video “crystal clear” evidence of grooming, highlighting her “breathtaking arrogance” in exploiting her position as a trusted teacher.
Joynes, who joined the school in 2018, contacted Boy A through Snapchat after giving him most of her phone number as a “maths problem” in class. Their flirtatious messages led to the October 2021 shopping trip, where she drove him in her white Audi to the Trafford Centre. After buying the belt, she took him to her luxury flat, where they had unprotected sex twice. She warned him, “No one had better find out.” Days later, rumors spread when Boy A bragged to friends on Snapchat, sharing a photo of Joynes. His mother, noticing a love bite on his neck, alerted the school, leading to Joynes’s arrest on October 18, 2021.
Bodycam footage from the arrest shows Joynes, arms crossed, as police inform her she’s under suspicion for sexual activity with a child. She responds,
“How did it come so far?”
Forensic evidence, including the boy’s semen on her bedsheets and the Gucci belt in his possession, sealed her guilt. Despite denying the charges, Joynes was convicted after a nine-day trial at Manchester Crown Court.
While on bail, Joynes began a relationship with another 15-year-old student, Boy B, and later gave birth to his child in early 2024. The baby was removed from her care within 24 hours. Boy B described feeling “coerced, controlled, manipulated, sexually abused, and mentally abused,” emphasizing the lifelong impact of being “forever linked” to Joynes through their child. Judge Kate Cornell sentenced Joynes to six and a half years in prison, condemning her abuse of power and lack of remorse. She’s now on the sex offenders’ register for life and barred from teaching.
The case has sparked outrage, raising questions about teacher-student boundaries and the use of social media in grooming. Police emphasized that “women can still be paedophiles,” challenging stereotypes about female perpetrators. The released footage serves as a stark reminder of the need to protect young victims, especially boys, who often face stigma in reporting abuse.
