British film actress Zara Phythian and her husband Victor Marke are both facing jail after being found guilty of jointly grooming and abusing a teenage girl.
Phythian, 37, who appeared with Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2016 Marvel film Doctor Strange, preyed on the girl over a three-year period from when she was 13.
Marke, a taekwondo master, was also found to have sexually abused another girl on his own.
The BBC reports: Phythian, who is 37, was found guilty of 14 sexual offences at Nottingham Crown Court while her husband, who is 59, was found guilty of 18.
The court heard the couple met when he was her martial arts instructor, and she went on to have a successful career in martial arts, as a stuntwoman, and actress.
When Victor Marke gave his evidence at Nottingham Crown Court, he admitted sexual activity with one of the girls but claimed she was 18 at the time.
The prosecution said he had engaged in numerous “threesomes” with the girl and Phythian, starting when the girl was 13.
However, Marke claimed the sexual activity happened on only one occasion, and said Phythian was not involved.
When Phythian gave her evidence, she denied any kind of sexual activity with the girl.
Speaking after the guilty verdicts, Nicole Hepburn from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the couple had been “exposed as the true liars”.
Marke and Phythian were in a relationship when they abused the girl and later married in 2015. She stood trial under her married name of Zara Marke.
