Dailymail
Hollywood actress Zara Phythian was facing a jail sentence today after she was convicted of child sex offences.
Phythian, 36, who starred in the 2016 Marvel superhero film Doctor Strange, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton, was found guilty of sexually abusing a girl over three years, starting when she was 13.
She and her Taekwondo ‘master’ husband Victor Marke, 59, were jointly charged with 14 historic counts of sexual activity with the girl.
Her husband was also charged with four counts of indecently assaulting another girl, aged 15 at the time, between 2002 and 2003.
The couple had denied all the charges, but a jury found them guilty following a 12 day trial at Nottingham Crown Court.
They held hands tightly in the dock as the sentences were announced. Phythian had a look of horror on her face as her first guilty verdict was delivered.
She stood in the dock wearing a black trouser suit with golf buttons wept as the jury foreman delivered the verdicts, while Marke put an arm around her shoulder.
MailOnline has uncovered disturbing details about how the origin of Victor and Zara’s own relationship follow a similar pattern to the grooming that was highlighted in their trial.
The couple met when she was just 14 and he was 37 after she joined his School of Champions academy in Nottingham which he had started with his former wife Juliet, and she started to train under him.
She was aged 19 and he was aged 42 when they started a sexual relationship. His marriage to wife Juliet ended after his relationship with Zara became public.
At the time, he was considered to be one of Britain’s leading martial artists and was head of the World Congress of Martial Arts Association.
The trial heard that she had undergone a ceremony to become his ‘official disciple’. MailOnline can reveal that Zara is said to have accepted Victor as her ‘master’ in an ancient Shaolin ceremony at the age of 17.
