Zara Phythian, the martial arts stuntperson and actress who appeared in 2016’s Doctor Strange, has been sentenced to eight years of prison after being found guilty of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl.
The 37-year-old was sentenced in the U.K.’s Nottingham Crown Court on Monday, while her husband Victor Marke was sentenced to 14 years in prison, as Judge Mark Watson said Marke, 59, was a “driving force behind the abuse.”
“Whilst you denied in cross-examination that you were besotted with Victor Marke, on the evidence I have heard I am in no doubt that your deviance was shaped by the influence that he had upon you from an early age,” Watson told Phythian.
Phythian was convicted on Wednesday of 14 charges of sexual activity with a child between 2005 and 2008, starting when the girl was 13 years old. In addition to the same 14 counts, Marke was found guilty of an additional four counts of indecent assault against another girl from 2002 to 2003, when she was 15.
A police interview with the first victim was played last month at Nottingham Crown Court, in which she said, “I knew it was wrong, but I just didn’t know how to get out of the situation or say anything.”
Phythian and Mark have reportedly denied all allegations from both plaintiffs before being found guilty.
The first victim described looking up to Phythian, who was working as a martial-arts instructor in Nottinghamshire at the time, as was Marke. She claimed Phythian and Marke gave her alcohol before Phythian dared her to perform oral sex on Marke, who reportedly was not yet married to Phythian but to another woman.
“I remember trying to copy Zara’s reaction at the time because I looked up to her and tried to be like her,” the woman said. She said Marke then had sex with both Phythian and the victim.
The woman told police that Marke told her no one “would believe” her and threatened to harm her if she said anything, adding of the couple, “They always had a power over me.”
The second victim said Marke began having sex with her when she was 16.
“I want to thank the two victims who have showed great courage in coming forward and talking about their ordeal,” senior investigating officer Parminder Dhillon said after the verdict. “Although no punishment handed down by a court can undo the lifelong damage caused to the them, I do hope they take some degree of comfort from the knowledge that justice has now been done.”
Dhillon added, “I hope this case serves as a reminder to others, that we treat all allegations of sexual abuse with the utmost seriousness and that, even in cases where offenses occurred many years ago, we will thoroughly investigate and we will do everything in our power to bring perpetrators to justice.”
