A teaching assistant accused of having sex with a 15-year-old student claims the boy pestered her constantly after she gave him her number so he could discuss a personal problem.

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

The student claimed the mother-of-three had told him she was pregnant with his child.

But the defendant said she had given the complainant her number so he could talk to her about an issue he was having with another student at the Buckinghamshire school she was teaching at.

Barber was a cover supervisor and, like all staff, was not supposed to contact students outside school without the head's permission, Aylesbury Crown Court heard.

"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.

She continued: "There was always something he needed to speak to me about - I was checking his general welfare as well."

Barber said she would often receive messages from the student on Snapchat saying "call me, call me".

"If I could I would try and call, if not I would say 'I'm busy'," she said.

She added: "It became a lot more persistent and I was quite concerned, concerned because I shouldn't have had that contact in the first place."

Barber said she had tried to tell the boy she was uncomfortable with the phone calls, and that he needed to talk to her at school if he had a problem he wanted to discuss.

In November 2018 Barber was off school for two weeks after suffering an ectopic pregnancy.

She denied ever telling the complainant the baby could be his, but said the fact she had lost a baby was well known around the school.

The jury heard that the complainant initially denied the affair when rumours of his alleged relationship with Barber were put to him by the headteacher in January 2019.

The boy later accepted the alleged affair when he was spoken to again in March last year after topless pictures of Barber circulated around the school.

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

After being spoken to by the head teacher, Barber sent a message to the complainant saying: "Promise me you will delete everything - don't want to get in any trouble."

When she refused to have any further contact with him, 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."

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

She further denies 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.