Friday 13 May 2022 10:46 PM Distraught father of British actress speaks out after she was found guilty of ... trends now

As a father of four daughters, Andy Phythian wanted to do everything possible to ensure his girls could look after themselves as they grew up.

And so from an early age, the sisters found themselves schooled in martial arts.

Zara, the eldest, quickly excelled, and had a karate black belt by the age of 14. Having learned everything her local club could teach, she joined an academy in Nottingham run by coach and Taekwondo master, Victor Marke.

Zara quickly became his star pupil, with Marke telling her parents the teenager was so good she should ditch her dreams of university to pursue martial arts full time.

Mr Phythian came to regard Marke as a friend. When Marke married, he was invited to the wedding along with his wife and Zara.

So imagine Mr Phythian’s shock when, barely five years later, his then 19-year-old daughter told him it was not just the sport she had fallen in love with — but her instructor too.

‘I had no suspicions at all,’ her father told the Daily Mail.

‘I could not believe what I was hearing and to say I was not a happy man would be an understatement. I felt betrayed by him and very angry.’

Such a reaction was hardly surprising given that Marke was 22 years older than Zara, his wife had recently had their baby — and he was supposed to be Zara’s teacher, not her lover.

For two years, Mr Phythian and his daughter did not talk until relations thawed to the extent that Marke felt able to ask Mr Phythian, a joiner, for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

The pair seemed happy enough and, as the years passed, appeared to have created a successful life together.

Not only did Zara rise to become a Taekwondo world champion, but she managed to turn her passion for martial arts into a successful acting career.

Talent-spotted at a tournament in the United States, she began to work as a stuntwoman as well as taking part in Guinness World Record attempts on Sky TV.

But her big break came when she successfully auditioned for the role of ‘Brunette Zealot’ in the 2016 Marvel superhero film Doctor Strange, alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton.

At the time, she was described as enjoying ‘unprecedented personal and professional success’ — even telling of her ambition to star in a Bond film.

Today, those dreams of Hollywood fame are consigned to history.

On Wednesday, Zara, 37, and her husband were found guilty of grooming and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old schoolgirl.

The first time it happened they got the teenager drunk on Captain Morgan rum, and Zara dared the child to perform a sex act on her husband.

On subsequent occasions, Marke filmed the incidents in an ‘attempt to recreate pornographic scenes’ with the assaults progressing to include full sexual intercourse — said to have taken place on numerous occasions.

Marke, 59, was also convicted of indecently assaulting another girl, aged 15. Sordid details emerged about the couple’s love life, including how Marke would film Zara having sex with other men.

The couple always denied any abuse had taken place, claiming their accusers had made up the allegations.

And throughout the trial at Nottingham Crown Court, Zara’s family stood by her, watching from the public gallery as guilty verdicts were returned and the couple were remanded in custody ahead of sentencing next week.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail barely a day later, it is clear Zara’s father is struggling to come to terms with events.

He says the family expected her to be cleared, echoing claims made by others in the martial arts community who say Zara had herself been groomed by Marke.

‘Victor groomed Zara as well as his other victims,’ a former training partner of the couple said last week. ‘He used his power and influence as a master of martial arts to dominate and control young girls.’

Mr Phythian agrees: ‘We have all got along over the years, but now there are no words for how I feel about him. I have always thought he groomed Zara.

He got into her mind and messed her head up to control her. For her, martial arts meant everything. He used that to get a hold over her.’

He adds: ‘In my opinion he should have owned up to grooming Zara, pleaded guilty and let her walk. She is another of his teenage victims. I just feel awful about it.’

Of course, the truth is that any sympathy should be reserved entirely for the couple’s victims.

The abuse of which Zara was convicted was committed when she was an adult, starting in 2005 when she would have been about 20, and her partner 42.

In addition, the offences continued over a three-year period, having a devastating impact on the teenage victim and damaging her relationship with her mother.

Because of the couple’s not guilty pleas, she was then forced to relive her ordeal in court.

The woman’s anguish was clear as she tearfully told the jury she regarded what had happened to her as her ‘darkest secret’, adding that she had always planned to ‘die with my shame’.

She had only decided to speak out after becoming a mother herself and being contacted by police who told her another girl was claiming to have been abused by Marke.

The victim described how, aged 13, the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ couple had seen ‘the vulnerability in me and preyed on that’.

‘I was ashamed,’ she added. ‘It was a power they had over me. I never knew how to get out of that situation. I could not see a way out.’

When she did finally pluck up the courage to say she never wanted to see them again, Zara was said to have told her: ‘Don’t come back, I’m burning your stuff.’

While Zara dismissed the claims as lies and ‘bulls***’, the victim was able to describe a Chinese calligraphy tattoo her abuser had in an intimate area, signifying

read more from dailymail.....