The husband of a teaching assistant accused of having sex with a 15-year-old student told a court "it wasn't hard to guess" why she was arrested.

Kandice Barber, 35, of Wendover, is accused of having sex with the teenager in a field and sending topless pictures of herself to him on Snapchat between September and October 2018.

Aylesbury Crown Court heard the student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was approached by Barber at a sports presentation in September 2018, who took his phone and added herself to his Snapchat.

The following month, Barber picked the boy up in her car and had sex with him in a field, the court heard.

Giving evidence on Thursday, her husband, Daniel Barber, said they were trying for a baby around the time of the alleged offences but his wife suffered an ectopic pregnancy in November 2018.

Mr Barber described his wife as "his rock" and denied they were going through a "bad patch".

Prosecutor Richard Milne read out Mr Barber's statement to police, in which he described being unhappy at work around the time of the alleged offences.

The statement read: "I was having a rough time at work, my new job at Morrisons was not going well, I was quite down.

"I felt frustrated, I'd come home deflated, whinge and moan to Kandice, she was very supportive and talked to me about work."

It continued: "My downer about work did not affect our relationship, it certainly did not cause us to argue."

When asked whether he knew at the time why his wife was being arrested in March 2019, he said: "She works in a school, I kind of guessed it, it wasn't hard."

Mr Barber was asked whether he spoke to his wife about why she was arrested when he picked her up from the police station, to which he replied: "There was so much that happened in the daytime, we were talking about it but it wasn't making any sense what we were talking about."

He added: "She said there were pictures and that there was communication between them, the boy and herself."

The defendant said she had given the teenager her number so he could talk to her about an issue he was having with another student at the school, which we are not naming to protect the identity of the victim.

Barber told jurors the conversations between her and the boy were never sexual and denied sending him topless pictures of herself.

Jurors heard police took a statement from a social worker, who stated that Barber informed her that she "let her guard down and sent a topless picture" to the boy.

Police found Barber had Googled "alibi" and "having an affair", which she claimed were in reference to a film.

When asked why she searched for "secluded area" on Google, Barber said she had a dog she wanted to take for a walk.

Her mother, Dawn Green, in her evidence to the court said on the day Barber was arrested she was not allowed to stay at her home with her children while a social worker investigated.

Describing how Barber felt at the time, Ms Green said: "Absolutely devastated, as was I."

Mr Milne asked Ms Green what Barber told her she was being arrested for, she replied: "I think it was just the fact that a young student had been harassing her and that was about it."

The prosecutor told Ms Green that it must have seemed quite puzzling that Barber was arrested because a student had been harassing her, to which she replied: "I was flabbergasted."

The court previously heard Barber was a cover supervisor at the school and was bound by the same rules as teaching staff to not contact students outside school without the head's permission.

When asked how the naked photos of herself had been leaked, Barber told the court that the My Eyes Only folder in her Snapchat had been hacked.

Barber denied 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 hearing continues.