Doctor Strange actress Zara Phythian and her husband ‘had sex with 13-year-old girl’, court told
Woman says Marke allegedly threatened to smash her kneecaps if she told anyone
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Doctor Strange actor Zara Phythian has been accused of numerous sex offences along with her husband Victor Marke, including having sex with a 13-year-old girl after grooming her.
The couple are accused of 14 joint charges of sexual activity with the child, who is now a woman.
Ms Pythian, 36, and Mr Marke, 59, have denied the charges.
The woman told the police in an interview played in Nottingham Crown Court that the abuse took place between 2005 and 2008 when she was between 13 and 15 years old.
She said she looked up to Ms Phythian who was a martial arts instructor along with her husband in Nottinghamshire at the time.
The couple were not married then.
The woman said Ms Phythian gave her alcohol and asked her to have oral sex with Mr Marke, who subsequently had sex with both of them.
“I knew it was wrong but I just didn’t know how to get out of the situation or say anything,” she was quoted as saying to the police by BBC News.
“I remember trying to copy Zara’s reaction at the time because I looked up to her and tried to be like her in every way.”
The court was also told by the woman that she was “coached” by Ms Phythian to get better at the sexual activity and that she estimated having sex with Mr Marke about 20 times, reported the Nottinghamshire Live newspaper.
The woman also said Mr Marke allegedly threatened to smash her kneecaps if she told anyone.
“He just said nobody would believe me if I told them anyway,” she told police.
“They always had a power over me.”
Mr Marke is also accused of four other charges, including indecently assaulting a child in relation to another woman who was aged 15 and abused between 2002 and 2003.
The woman also complained to the police.
The court was told that Mr Marke was married to another woman at the time.
His previous marriage had broken down as he had a relationship with Ms Phythian who was a teenager at the time.