Wendover teacher who had sex with 15-year-old school boy and sent lurid videos is jailed

Kandice Barber, 35, had also sent the teenager topless pictures of herself on Snapchat and a video of her performing a sexual act.

Jailing her at Aylesbury Crown Court, Recorder Bal Dhaliwal said: “You acted in gross breach of trust. You took advantage of a child in your care and groomed him for your own sexual gratification.”

Barber, a cover supervisor, was found guilty in January, after a retrial, of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. She was found not guilty of two similar charges.

Last September a jury convicted the mother-of-three, of London Road, Wendover, Bucks of sexual communication with the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons. The offences happened in September and October 2018.

Prosecutor David Povall summarised a victim personal statement from the teenager in which he said Barber “was supposed to help him make the right decisions, but helped him to make all the wrong decisions.”

Mr Povall said: “He was at school and he came in to contact with the defendant. She was in a position of trust.

“He has been caused stress and anxiety having to go through two trials.

“He is concerned his family and friends have also suffered. He has been made very anxious by media coverage. A journalist from one of the tabloids turned up at the family front door at one stage.

“His GCSEs were not as good as they should have been, partly as a result.”

Barber’s husband Daniel stood by her, but was not at court for the sentencing. He had denied their relationship was in trouble at the time and described her as his “rock.” He had described the jury’s verdict after the second trial as a “joke.”

She had blown him a kiss after being remanded in custody following the second jury’s verdict.

During the trial the jury heard Barber began messaging the boy in 2018 after taking his phone number at a school sports day prize-giving.

The texts turned sexual and Barber picked him up in her 4x4 car before driving to a field in October 2018 where they had sex.

She continued sending him texts. In class she texted him saying: “You cannot make me blush when I am teaching now, poker face.”

Another message asked: “Do you prefer boobs or bum?”

Barber encouraged him to delete messages she had sent, but he kept some of the more explicit texts.

Nadia Chbat, defending Barber, who wore a grey short sleeve top, black puffa jacket and blue face mask in the dock, said she had three children and two step-children. “Any period of custody will have a significant affect on her family. It will continue to have an impact on her children. “

She said she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy and had undergone surgery to have one side of her Fallopian tubes removed.

She said Barber had lost her job at the start of the investigation into the accusations and had found it difficult to adjust to the time she had spent on remand in custody following her conviction in January.

Recorder Dhaliwal told her: “You befriended him in the full knowledge such contact was prohibited.

“Initially messages did not contain sexual contact. Within a week those messages became sexual.

“You called him and asked to meet. He agreed and you walked into some private fields. You began kissing him. You asked if he wanted to have sex, he agreed.”

The judge said that Barber had told the boy she had made it clear if he disclosed anything she would “take him down.”

“You are an adult who abused her position of trust and sought to hide your offending.

"It matters not you are female and the victim male,” she said.

The judge said there had been a significant degree of planning shown by Barber’s google searches for secluded area and the Holiday Inn in Wycombe.

Barber must register as a sex offender and abide by the terms of a sexual harm prevention order for life. She is also barred from ever working with children.