Doctor Strange Actor Jailed For Child Sex Offences On Hourly Watch

Doctor Strange star Zara Phythian has reportedly been placed in isolation and is subject to hourly checks after being sentenced to eight years for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl. 

Phythian, 37, was found guilty of 14 counts of sexual activity with a child committed between 2005 and 2008, when the victim was in her early teens.

Her husband, 59-year-old Victor Marke, was also convicted of the same 14 offences and indecent assault charges relating to another underage girl he abused on at least eight occasions between 2002 and 2003.

Earlier this month, Phythian was sentenced to eight years and is currently serving out her sentence at Foston Hall prison in Derbyshire. 

Alamy

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Phythian has been placed into isolation and is currently checked every hour by prison guards for her own safety. 

A source close to the family, told the news outlet: “She's in a really bad way and been kept in isolation for her own safety before being moved to a single cell.

“Guards are doing hourly checks on her because she has been close to a nervous breakdown. Andy [her father] is desperate to see her but has to wait to get his visitors pass.

“She's been crying down the phone to him and is not in a good way.”

During the trial, the victim, who cannot be named, said the couple were like 'Jekyll and Hyde'.

The woman said: "He just said nobody would believe me if I told them anyway. They always had a power over me."

Alamy

Passing sentence, Judge Mark Watson told the couple he believed the start of the abuse was pre-planned.

Addressing Phythian, the judge said: "Whilst you denied in cross-examination that you were besotted with Victor Marke, on the evidence I have heard I am in no doubt that your deviance was shaped by the influence that he had upon you from an early age.

"I cannot ignore that it started at a time when you were still young."

But the judge added: "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."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivor’s Trust for free on 08088 010 818, or through their website thesurvivorstrust.org

Topics: UK News, Crime

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at UNILAD who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats.