A Marvel film star from Nottinghamshire who sexually abused a 13-year-old girl has become a jail cleaner. Zara Phythian, who appeared in 2016’s Doctor Strange and was living in Mansfield, has enrolled on an industrial cleaning course behind bars.
As reported by The Irish Mirror, she hopes the certificate will help her find work when she’s freed from an eight-year term at Foston Hall jail in Derbyshire for the sex abuse. Phythian’s father Andy, who visits his daughter twice a month, said: “She’s coping surprisingly well. They’ve put her on an industrial cleaners course.
“If you did it on the outside it would cost you £5,000 to get the certification. A chosen few are selected to help reflect their good behaviour. Hopefully it will come in useful when she gets out.”
Phythian, 37, was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court in May. Her husband Victor Marke, 59, was jailed for 14 years for abusing the same victim, as well as the indecent assault of a second girl.
The couple were found guilty of 14 counts of sexual activity. Marke, a martial arts instructor, was convicted of four more charges of indecent assault against another teen.
The court heard Phythian, a taekwondo world champion, was found guilty of plying her teenage victim with rum before making her perform a sex act on her partner.
Phythian’s father Andy is adamant his daughter was groomed by Marke. He added: “Zara accepts her situation and is just trying to do the right thing while she serves her sentence.
“She’s got a job in the gym where she trains and teaches yoga and self-defence classes. New inmates who don’t know her think she works with the prison but she has to explain to them that she is a prisoner herself.
“I think it is the polite way she talks and comes over as educated. The prison did put her on a catering course but she didn’t like that.
“She’s going to start a sports science degree at the end of the month and she’ll hopefully get a laptop which will be locked down to only allow her to view the coursework.
“The prison is understaffed so there are a lot of days when they are locked in their cell which Zara finds hard to deal with but I don’t want her to get moved now she’s settled in.”
Andy added: “When she first came in on the remand wing she was getting a lot of grief and put in isolation for her own safety but that has all stopped now and she is in a single cell.”
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