A married British teacher who had sex with a 15-year-old student in a field has been sentenced to six years in prison. Kandice Barber, 35 and from Buckinghamshire, was described as “beyond despicable” by the judge who sentenced her after a jury found her guilty of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity at Aylesbury Crown Court on Friday, March 5.
- Barber was sentenced to six years and two months behind bars. Recorder Bal Dhaliwal said as per The Mirror: “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 was previously convicted in September 2020 by a jury but requested a retrial, after which she was sentenced.
- The victim statement was read out in court. The former student, who was 15 at the time of the incidents in 2018, released a statement to be read in court in which he said that Barber was “supposed to help him make the right decisions, but helped him to make all the wrong decisions.” Prosecutor David Povall revealed that the victim had experienced “stress and anxiety” as a result of going through two trials.
- The victim’s life will never be the same. The effects of the abuse he experienced at Barber’s hands go beyond stress and anxiety, with Povall pointing out that “his GCSEs were not as good as they should have been, partly as a result” and that the boy’s family and friends had also suffered as a result of the abuse.
- The judge accused Barber of grooming the boy over a period of months. After beginning to exchange messages with the boy in September 2018, things quickly turned sexual and Barber is the one who made the turn. “You also sent images, including a topless image of yourself, and a live video in which you were masturbating,” Judge Dhaliwal said. “All of these acts are tantamount to you grooming him and pulling him in, and with significant planning on your part.” Barber also ordered the boy at a later time to delete all the messages and photos she’d sent him to avoid being caught. Later, she tried to manipulate the boy by claiming she was pregnant with his child.
- Barber is a master of manipulation and a sure predator. “There is no doubt in my mind that you acted in gross breach of trust,” the judge added. “You took advantage of a child in your care and groomed him for your own sexual gratification. You befriended him in the full knowledge such contact was prohibited.” Dhaliwal later said: “You already had authority over him by the nature of your position, and to use threats to bring him down so he would comply with your demands to remain quiet, which is what I find that you did, is in my view beyond despicable.”
- Now, Barber is headed to prison. In addition to her six-year sentence, she was handed a separate 16-month sentence for causing a child under 16 to watch sexual activity by a person in breach of trust and another 10-month sentence for sexual communication, both of which will be served along with her main sentence. She’ll never be able to work with children again and will be subject to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order.
