An actress and her husband have been found guilty of a string of child sex charges after jointly grooming and abusing a teenage girl.
Zara 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.
Phythian, from Mansfield, 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.
