Not looking good for pretty evil predator
THE RESPONSE to the story of Rebecca Joynes, the 30-year-old teacher found guilty of having sex with two 15-year-old pupils, has been disgraceful. Former cheerleader Joynes has a certain X-factor. She is white, blonde, and slim with symmetrical features. Some might say a traditional English rose. Like others, Joynes is conventionally attractive in a Barbie-lite, yes, I’d happily buy a used car from this pretty lady kind of way.
Joynes abused her trusted position to have sexual relationships with two pupils. She allowed one to get her pregnant.Yet, though the judge warns she faces a prison sentence and a lifetime on the Sex Offenders’ Register, Joynes has not been called a paedophile and barely branded what she clearly is – a predator.
A warped vocal sector of the population believes an attractive woman cannot prey on young boys. Social media buzzes with the insistence that sex with Joynes would be “any boy’s fantasy” and the children she abused must have “enjoyed every minute”.
Had Joynes resembled Dahl’s MissTrunchbull – older, heavier, and less aesthetically pleasing – imagine the national horror. A woman deemed physically unappealing by the court of public opinion using children to sate her sexual desires would be reviled. Had Joynes been a man, and her charges underage girls, the vitriol would rightly have been boundless.
ANYONE focusing on Joynes’s comely figure and physical charms is missing the point. She groomed and seduced her pupils. Buying one a £345 Gucci belt and the other a babygro with ‘I Love My Daddy on it after playing a Victoria’s Secret sex game. She robbed both of their innocence and right to develop at their own pace, exploiting her power in exactly the same way that hate-figure HarveyWeinstein wielded his.
The boys were playthings, used for Joynes’s gratification.Ask any adult sexually abused as a child and they will tell you that the experience rapes and pillages their very existence. The predator’s appearance is irrelevant. The age of consent for teachers and their pupils is 18.
The law deems these boys too immature to give consent to sexual activity. The teacher to whose care they were entrusted plundered their peace of mind, rupturing their mental health and interrupting their education. This is not a titillating tale starring a sexy schoolmistress. It’s a horrifying example of child abuse. Don’t be swayed by appearances