Sex abuse actress is jailed for eight years

AN actress has been jailed for eight years for a string of sex attacks on a teenage girl which started when the victim was 13.

Zara Phythian and her husband Victor Marke were found guilty last week of 14 counts of sexual activity with a child after jointly grooming and abusing the girl between 2005 and 2008.

Marke, who was also found guilty of indecently assaulting a second complainant, was handed a 14-year sentence at Nottingham Crown Court.

Phythian, who featured in the 2016 blockbuster Doctor Strange and ran a martial arts academy, appeared calm in the dock yesterday as she was told the abuse was aggravated by its prolonged nature.

Passing sentence, Judge Mark Watson told the couple he believed the start of the abuse 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.”

Addressing Phythian, the judge added: “Whilst you denied 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.”

Phythian’s film career peaked in 2016 when she got the part of “brunette zealot” in Doctor Strange.