A film actress has been jailed for the historic sexual abuse of a teenage girl.
Zara Phythian was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court after she and her martial arts boyfriend sexually abused a girl together. The actress, best known for her role in Marvel's Doctor Strange, are believed to have pre-planned the abuse of the girl.
Phythian, who featured in the 2016 Marvel movie Doctor Strange, and also runs a martial arts academy, was found guilty at Nottingham Crown Court of 14 counts of sexual activity with a child aged 13-15 committed between 2005 and 2008. Jurors also convicted the 37-year-old's husband, Victor Marke, 59, of the same 14 offences and indecent assault charges relating to another under-age girl he abused on at least eight occasions between 2002 and 2003.
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Marke was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for jointly abusing the same victim, as well as indecent assault of a second girl who now lives in Liverpool. Judge Mark Watson told the couple that he believed that the sexual abuse of the joint victim was pre-planned.
The judge told Marke: "I regard you as the driving force behind the abuse. You were clearly aware of the first incident but pretended to be asleep. This could only have been a ruse agreed in advance."
During the sentencing, the judge also said that Phythian's "deviance" was shaped by the influence that Marke had on her from an early age. Phythian was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for the historical sexual abuse.
As she was led away to the cells, Phythian waved at the public gallery, where a woman shouted: “I love you, Zara.”
The 37-year-old, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and Marke, 59, were told they will have to serve at least half their sentences before being considered for parole.
The judge said Marke, who was found guilty of four indecent assault charges relating to another under-age girl he abused at least eight times between 2002 and 2003, had shown a “high level of depravity” during the offences.
Phythian denied being a paedophile during her two-week trial, while her husband, who is also a martial arts instructor, broke down in the witness box.
Jurors were told the abuse of the couple’s joint victim began when Phythian, then in her early 20s, asked her “Do you want to play dare?” and invited her to copy a sex act she had performed on Marke.
The victim, who cannot be named, told the court Marke threatened her and ordered her to film some of the abuse at the hands of the “Jekyll and Hyde” couple.
In her evidence to the court, Phythian said she was given a chance to star in films after being “spotted” at a martial arts contest in the United States.
She told jurors she runs a production company, has her own sports clothing brand and had formed a relationship with Marke when she was 19.
Phythian’s film career peaked in 2016, the court heard, when she auditioned for and got the part of “brunette zealot” in Doctor Strange, which starred Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role.
Marke, of Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire, denied touching one victim sexually and said the other complainant had given him oral sex when he was drunk and she had turned 18.
