Doctor Strange actress, Zara Phythian has been jailed for eight years for sexually abusing a teenage schoolgirl.
Her husband, Victor Marke was sentenced to 14 years in jail for abusing the same girl, who was aged between 13 and 15, and indecently assaulting a second girl.
Phythian, 37, who featured in the 2016 Marvel blockbuster Doctor Strange alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday, May 16.
Jurors heard the couple abused the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, “once or twice a month” from 2005 and plied her with alcohol during a three-year ordeal.
Passing sentence, Judge Mark Watson told the pair he believed the abuse was pre-planned – and Marke, 59, was the “driving force” behind it.
Phythian and Marke, both sports coaches, were convicted of 14 counts of sexual activity with a child.
Marke was also found guilty of indecent assault charges relating to another underage girl who was abused on at least eight occasions between 2002 and 2003.
Jurors heard the abuse of the couple’s joint victim began when Phythian, then in her early 20s, asked her to “play dare” and invited her to copy a sex act she performed on Marke.
The victim said Marke threatened her and ordered her to film some of the abuse at the hands of the couple.
After her sentencing, Phythian waved at the public gallery, where a woman shouted, “I love you, Zara,” as the actress was led away to the cells.
