Metro
35-Year-Old Married Teacher Found Guilty Of Having Sex With 15-Year-Old Pupil
A married teacher has been found guilty of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Kandice Barber, 35, of Wendover, Buckinghamshire, was tried for a second time over allegations she had sex with a 15-year-old boy in a field while she was working as a school cover supervisor.
A jury at Amersham Law Courts found Barber guilty of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and not guilty of two further counts of the same offences.
The teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, previously said he was “worried and scared” when rumours of their alleged relationship became a topic of discussion around his school.
A court previously heard that Barber had told the boy she would “bring him down with her” if the relationship was discovered.
The unidentified schoolboy reportedly claimed encounters include the married mum performing oral sex in a wooded area. But the 35-year-old denied that the encounters ever took place.
In cross-examination, the boy could not name the specific dates when alleged sexual activity had taken place between them.
Barber denied three counts of causing or inciting a child aged under 16 years to engage in a sexual act.
Jurors took 10 hours and 39 minutes to reach their verdicts today.
Her delivery worker husband, Daniel, who was watching proceedings remotely in a side room, slammed the guilty verdict: ‘It’s a joke.’ When Barber emerged at the court entrance he grabbed her hand.
As the two walked hand in hand to a court office, a judge then ordered them to wait until a date is set for her sentencing on Friday or next Monday.
In a previous trial, she was convicted of sexual communication with a child between those same dates and causing a child to watch a sexual act by a person in a position of trust from October 20 2018 to January 31, 2019.
Jennie Laskar-Hall of the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘Barber used her position as a teacher and as a trusted member of the community to abuse a teenage boy in her care.
‘The messages were crucial to our case as they showed Barber had initiated contact with the teenager and pursued him, even threatening him when the school investigation began.
‘Denying what she had done, Barber has forced the teenager and his family to go through a trial, and I want to commend him for providing the vital evidence we needed to secure today’s conviction.’
The ex-boyfriend of the disgraced teaching assistant Kandice previously explained how their two-years-old relationship ended over her sexual demands, declaring ‘It was too excessive’.
Speaking to MailOnline, the former partner, who didn’t want to be named, said: ‘When I heard about the video and picture she’d sent this lad and where they had sexual contact, it reminded me of our relationship. I thought that sounds like Kandice.
‘That was the sort of stuff she was into and it didn’t surprise me at all but what shocked me was that she did it with a kid. I can’t believe how stupid she’s been.’
According to him, they met on dating site, Plenty of Fish, and their relationship was dominated by her ‘huge sex drive’ with her demanding sex up to six times per day, often in unusual places.
He recalled: ‘She liked doing it outside, sometimes in the car, the garden or in woods. We’d be driving somewhere, and she’d say, ‘pull over, I’m feeling horny.’ It just got too much for me. Everyone has got their personal needs and that sort of stuff got her excited but by the end of it I couldn’t be bothered, I’d just had enough. It was too excessive.’
He added: ‘Kandice is a wonderful girl, a great mother and overall, very law abiding. During our time together she never got so much as a parking ticket. But when it came to sex, she was just incredibly frisky and that’s what got her into all this trouble.’
He revealed that Barber was a pole dancer who regularly performed for him in skimpy clothing in the garage of her home in Kent, where she lived at the time.
He recalled: ‘Kandice said she pole danced for fitness reasons but there was always more to it. She’d wear hot pants and a sexy bra when she would do it and we’d often end up making love afterwards.”
‘Sometimes she’d have her friends over and they’d put on a show. They were all very sexy girls and I used to quite enjoy that.’
The former boyfriend also said their relationship came to an end after he discovered on her mobile phone, sexy pictures and videos that she had taken of herself. In the images, he claimed she was posing suggestively either naked or wearing skimpy clothing and in one video, she was pleasuring herself with a sex toy.
When he confronted her, he said she admitted to sending them to other men and also confessed to cheating on him with somebody she met at the gym.
He said: ‘I was really angry and hurt. Our relationship was already struggling but when she confessed to what she had been getting up to, I knew we would not be able to carry on.
‘We actually parted on quite good terms, but I was relieved that it was all over. I found Kandice a bit freaky when it came to sex and that actually put me off her.’