A husband has vowed to stand by his 35-year-old teaching assistant wife who sent a topless picture to a 15-year-old student.
Kandice Barber of Wendover, Buckinghamshire, was accused of having sex with the boy in a field while she was working as a school cover supervisor, and sending him topless pictures of herself on Snapchat between September and October 2018.
A jury at Aylesbury Crown Court found her guilty of two sex offence charges relating to the topless pictures and a video.
But they were unable to reach verdicts on three more serious charges of causing or inciting a child aged under 16 to engage in a sexual act. A retrial has been scheduled for January 18.
Barber’s husband Daniel – who called the teaching assistant his ‘rock’ – is standing beside her, MailOnline can reveal.
Barber’s family said her delivery driver husband Daniel would not be ending their marriage ‘whatever the trial outcome’.
Daniel Barber has vowed to stand by his 35-year-old teaching assistant wife Kandice who sent a topless picture to a 15-year-old student
Kandice Barber (pictured with husband Daniel) of Wendover, Buckinghamshire, was accused of having sex with the boy in a field while she was working as a school cover supervisor, and sending him topless pictures of herself on Snapchat between September and October 2018
During a two-week trial, jurors heard that the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed the mother-of-three had told him he had a bigger penis than her husband and she was pregnant with his child.
But the defendant said she had ‘good intentions’ when she gave her number to the teenager, despite teaching staff at the school in Buckinghamshire being banned from contacting pupils outside school without the head’s permission.
She was arrested after the boy revealed the alleged relationship to the headteacher in March 2019 after naked pictures of Barber circulated around the school, the court heard.
Teacher Kandice Barber, 35, leaves Aylesbury Crown Court, Buckinghamshire, with her husband Daniel yesterday
The student claimed the mother-of-three (pictured with husband Daniel), had told him he had a bigger penis than her husband
Rumours of an affair circulated among pupils after Barber sent topless pictures of herself to the boy. After the school alerted police and social services, Barber was arrested on March 12 last year
‘A lot of people are probably wondering why Daniel is standing by her,’ a family source told MailOnline. ‘But that’s none of their business. They’re still very much together, I can assure you of that.
‘I can understand why people might find it strange because a lot of men wouldn’t have put up with these allegations.
‘Daniel and Kandice were going through a difficult period when these claims were made. But now they just want to live their lives and sort out their problems.’
After a 10-day trial, jurors convicted Barber of two offences:
- Jurors convicted Barber of one count of sexual communication with a child, which took place between September and October 2018, when the boy was aged 15 and Barber was aged 33;
- Jurors convicted Barber of one count of causing a child to watch a sexual act by a person in a position of trust, which took place between October 2018 and January last year, when the boy was aged 16;
- Barber was acquitted of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity by a person in a position of trust, which was said to have occurred between October 2018 and January last year;
- Jurors were told that even though the boy was aged 16 years during some of the offences alleged, so over the age of consent, the fact that Barber was a teacher and he was still a child under 18-years-old, meant they would be criminal acts if proven
Kandice Barber is pictured arriving at court during her trial
The court was told Barber’s illicit relationship with the boy began in September 2018, just two years into her marriage, at a school sports event when she came over to him and asked to borrow his phone.
It was said she put her details into the teenager’s Snapchat account and then started messaging him, revealing when she was having a bath or shower.
Giving evidence via video link, the teenager, who is now 17, claimed that Barber sent him multiple graphic pictures of herself and a video of her masturbating while surrounded by sex toys. He told police they had sex three times.
Jurors had previously been told Barber had searched ‘What is the name of someone you are having an affair with?’ and the word ‘alibi’ on Google.
She also searched ‘a lie of where you have been’ then ‘good secluded areas,’ and ‘Holiday Inn, Wycombe.’
But the teacher claimed in evidence she was just trying to find out the name of the film Fatal Attraction and only enquired about ‘secluded areas’ for her dog walks.
In her evidence, Barber said she had given the teenager her number so he could talk to her about any issues and denied the conversations were sexual.
She told the court she never sent him topless pictures of herself and claimed the My Eyes Only folder in her Snapchat had been hacked.
She said she became uncomfortable with the boy’s phone calls and when she refused to have any contact with him she claimed he sent a message reading: ‘Watch what’s going to happen, you’re going to lose your job, you’re going to lose your family.’
In November 2018 Barber was off school for two weeks after suffering an ectopic pregnancy.
She denied ever telling the complainant the baby could be his, but said the fact that she had lost a baby was well known around the school.
Throughout the trial, Barber’s devoted husband Daniel, 38, dutifully accompanied her to court each day and even gave evidence on her behalf.
He hugged her and held her hand while she rested her head on his shoulder as the couple waited outside court for the jury to delivery its verdicts.
The aspiring singer was spared hearing all the lurid details of his wife’s alleged deceit during the three-week trial because he was giving evidence to the court in her defence.
The tattooed father-of-two, who worked night shifts at Morrisons supermarket before starting work for delivery firm DPD, denied that at the time of the affair the couple were going through a rocky patch.
He said that they had been trying for a baby at the time and Barber told him she was pregnant, but suffered an ectopic pregnancy a month later.
Daniel, pictured at the signing of the register at their wedding, described mother-of-three Barber as his ‘rock’ while giving evidence for her. He denied the couple were going through a rocky patch and said that they had been trying for a baby
Mr Barber, seen smiling with his wife during their first wedding dance, claimed that in October 2018 she informed him that she was pregnant. Barber suffered an ectopic pregnancy a month later
Her husband of four years said that his new job was getting him down, but that Barber was very supportive during that time.
In a statement provided to police, Daniel described Barber, who has three boys aged 15, 13 and ten from two previous relationships, as his ‘rock’, adding: ‘Around this time I was having a rough time at work, my new job at Morrison’s was not going well and I was feeling a bit down.
‘I felt frustrated, deflated and I would whinge and moan to Kandice, she was always very supportive, she would talk to me about work and would always speak positively towards me. She would tell me I was a good man and valuable to this family.
‘My downer about work did not effect our relationship, it did not cause us to argue. Kandice was my rock throughout this time.’
Daniel admitted to the court he had been totally unaware of rumours of the relationship swirling around the school.
Barber had not told her husband she that had been summoned to a meeting with the school headteacher in January 2019 to discuss the claims.
He said the first time he was aware of the allegations was two months after the meeting in March 2019 when his wife was arrested at the school and questioned by detectives for 12 hours.
Barber, a mother-of-three, had a meeting with the school headteacher in January to address the affair rumours, but didn’t disclose details of it to her husband, Daniel. They were married in August 2016 and have five children between them
The father-of-two was left blindsided when police officers arrived to search their marital home, and he had to collect his wife from the police station.
The prosecutor put it to him: ‘Police came round to the house, Kandice was arrested at work. They searched the house and seized equipment. You had not known about the meeting on January 24, she had never informed you. You had no idea why she had been arrested.’
Daniel, wearing black framed spectacles, told the court: ‘She works in a school so it is not hard to work out why she had been arrested. The accusation was that she had sex with a pupil at school. She had told me she had been communicating with him, she said she was helping him out with his issues.
‘She said someone had gone into her Snapchat and removed personal photos, she said it was ‘for my eyes only.’ She did have a collection of intimate photos on her phone.’
Barber (pictured with her husband) said she had given the teenager her number so he could talk to her about any issues
Call records obtained by Thames Valley Police, who had investigated the boy’s claims after Barber was arrested in March last year, showed the two had spoken months after the alleged affair was said to have ended.
Talk of the affair began circulating among pupils after a topless picture she sent to the boy was circulated to his school friends.
Senior school staff began investigating matters at the start of 2019 when one of the topless pictures of Barber came into their possession.
He admitted while giving evidence that he initially lied about the affair when questioned by the school headmaster because he thought that Barber was carrying his child.
He later told police that he did this because he did not want his child to be born in prison.
A jury of seven women and five men at Aylesbury Crown Court heard that the complainant had saved one of the topless pictures as ‘evidence’ of their alleged illicit affair.
The boy told the court: ‘I always knew there was an issue. I knew it was going to be an issue because it was teacher and student.
‘After it turned sexual between the two of us, I started screenshotting the messages. I screenshotted the Snapchat picture in case I needed to use it as evidence.’
After the school alerted police and social services, Barber was arrested on March 12 last year.
During an interview she produced a prepared statement where she denied having sex with the boy, claimed her pregnancy was widely known around the school – although she later lost the baby – and the father was her husband.
When questioned about the topless picture, she maintained that her Snapchat account must have been hacked.
The teenager gave three interviews to police revealing details of his supposed relationship with Barber.
Barber denied three counts of causing or inciting a child aged under 16 to engage in a sexual act and one count of sexual communication with a child.
She also pleaded not guilty to one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activities while in a position of trust, and one count of causing a child to watch a sexual act by a person in a position of trust.
Her husband Daniel was joined in the witness box by his mother-in-law Dawn Green who also supported of her daughter – and insisted she ‘believes’ her.
After her daughter’s arrest, Mrs Green told police: ‘Kandice told me she had been arrested and it was something to do with a student at school. She did not go into any details, she told me it happened in October 2019.
‘Kandice confirmed there had been no intimacy but she had been Snapchatting him for a few weeks. She said: ‘I know I have been silly mum’ and I agreed with her and told her she had been silly.
‘I asked her to swear on her life nothing had happened, and she did swear on her life.’