Pictured: Husband of teacher accused of having sex with schoolboy

The husband of a teacher accused of having sex with a 15-year-old pupil arrived at court today after hearing how his wife Googled ‘alibi’ and ‘good secluded areas’. 

Daniel Barber arrived at Aylesbury Crown Court today after the jury heard how his wife Kandice had had multiple phone conversations with the complainant.

She is accused of meeting up for sex with a schoolboy three times in 2018 – in a field, in woods and in her 4×4 – as well as sending topless pictures of herself to him on Snapchat. Barber denies the allegations and claims her account was hacked.

The 35-year-old cover supervisor at Princes Risborough School told jurors yesterday that the boy threatened to have her sacked if she cut off contact with him.

Barber, of Wendover, Buckinghamshire, said the the boy had pestered her after she gave him her phone number so he could discuss a problem.

She said she knew this had been wrong but that she had ‘good intentions’. 

Barber was bound by the same rules as teaching staff not to contact students outside school without the head’s permission.

The court also heard that Barber had searched the word ‘alibi’ and ‘good secluded areas’ into Google, and had had multiple phone conversations with the student – some lasting more than 40 minutes, according to police giving evidence. 

Detective Constable Colette Barker – a specialist in child abuse based with Thames Valley Police – revealed multiple phone conversations between the pair. 

Google searches including the word ‘alibi’ – spelled incorrectly – had been searched on Barber’s phone, along with ‘good secluded areas’, ‘Holiday Inn Wycombe’, and ‘lie about where you have been’, the court heard.

Barber yesterday claimed she had become embroiled in messaging the boy because he had come to her expressing school troubles.

The defendant said: ‘He was saying he had problems with another boy in my tutor group and they did not want to sit next to each other.

‘I was concerned if I had left it until the next morning that there was going to be an explosion, a big problem. I wanted to avoid it.’

Defending her, Nadia Chbat asked: ‘You understand that you are prohibited from talking to a student on your personal phone?’

Barber responded: ‘It is something I am incredibly embarrassed about, I know it was the wrong thing to do but I had good intentions.’

The jury heard about multiple calls between the pair, some lasting over 40 minutes. Barber claimed that she was merely checking on the boy’s welfare at school and having ‘general conversations’ including about homework.

‘A lot of the time I would receive Snapchats saying ‘call me’ but it was becoming persistent,’ Barber told jurors yesterday. ‘I was concerned because I know I should not have contacted him in the first place. I did not tell anyone about it because I was concerned I could lose my job, I love my job.’

After returning to school following the Christmas holidays, the teacher began to hear rumours about herself having a relationship with a student before being called in to speak with the headteacher, Nicholas Simms.

‘After I had a meeting with the headteacher who mentioned a picture, I specifically checked my Snapchat. I have pictures on Snapchat under ‘for my eyes only’ that I have taken to send to my husband,’ Barber said.

‘It is in that private section because my youngest son is often playing on my phone and I wouldn’t want him to see it accidentally. 

‘I have never sent these pictures to a student.’

The defendant alluded that her Snapchat had been hacked as her password was her birth year – 1985 – which was also printed in a T-shirt she often wore to work.  

Aylesbury Crown Court heard that following the meeting with the headteacher, Barber claimed the 15-year-old became ‘increasingly threatening.’

In particular, the defendant recalled a WhatsApp message – later deleted – which read: ‘Watch what’s going to happen, you are going to lose you job and your family, watch,’ followed by a laughing emoji.

The defendant explained to the judge that in the end she had blocked the teenager from her phone before she was arrested at 6.44am on March 11.

Barber was interviewed by police three times but gave ‘no comment’ answers to all questions. A prepared statement read: ‘I categorically deny that I have ever had sexual intercourse with the boy. I have never seen him naked and he has never seen me naked. I deny that I have ever given or received oral sex from the boy.’ 

The court heard the boy admitted sex with Barber after initially denying it when rumours of his alleged relationship with her were put to him by the head teacher in January 2019.

Barber told the court yesterday she gave the boy her number so he could talk to her about an issue he had with another student.

‘It is something I am incredibly embarrassed about, I know it was the wrong thing to do but I had good intentions in doing it,’ she said.

After that, she said there was ‘always something he needed to speak to me about’ and she would often receive messages on Snapchat saying ‘call me, call me’.

‘It became a lot more persistent and I was quite concerned, concerned because I shouldn’t have had that contact in the first place,’ she said.

Barber said she told the boy she was uncomfortable with the calls and when she refused further contact, she claims he sent her a message reading: ‘Watch what’s going to happen, you’re going to lose your job, you’re going to lose your family.’  

She denies three counts of causing or inciting a child aged under 16 to engage in a sexual act, one count of sexual communication with a child, 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.  

The trial continues.