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An actor with a minor role in the blockbuster “Doctor Strange” has been found guilty of sexual activity with a child .
Zara Phythian, 37, along with her husband Victor Marke, 59, were sentenced to eight years and 14 years in prison respectively, The Independent reported.
Phythian played the role of “brunette zealot” in the Benedict Cumberbatch Marvel vehicle in 2016.
Phythian and Marke are both martial arts instructors, and Phythian won several awards for the 2020 action film “Tribal, Get Out Alive,” an independent film for which she served as co-producer.
The pair were found guilty of 14 counts of abusing a grooming a girl who was 13 when the abuse began in 2005 and continued until 2008. Marke was also found guilty of sexually assaulting another girl.
Phythian denied being a pedophile during the trial. Marke also denied assaulting either victim, saying one of them gave him oral sex when she was 18.
Judge Mark Watson didn’t buy the denials.
“I regard you as the driving force behind the abuse,” he told Marke. “You were clearly aware of the first incident but pretended to be asleep.
“This could only have been a ruse agreed in advance.”
To Phythian — who began her relationship with Marke when she was 19 — Watson said that the evidence told him “that your deviance was shaped by the influence that (Marke) had upon you from an early age.”
“I cannot ignore that it started at a time when you were still young,” he said, adding, “Having said that, none of this excuses what you did — these were choices you made.
“You were by then successful in your own right. You chose to play your part.”
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[Featured image: Zara Phythian in Tribal, Get Out Alive/Wildstyle & OTM Film]
