We didn’t smuggle acid into nightclub
Alleged victim denies spiked drinks row
A CLUBBER who was allegedly sprayed with acid by Towie star Ferne McCann’s ex-boyfriend yesterday denied his group smuggled the liquid into the nightclub and started a fight.
Ruam Mota is one of 16 people injured at an event at the Wringer and Mangle club in Hackney, London, in the early hours of April 17.
Arthur Collins, 25, the former lover of TV star Ferne, and his friend Andre Phoenix, 21, deny five counts of causing grevious bodily harm with intent and 11 counts of assault leading to actual bodily harm.
Mota said he was in the club with his friends Makai Brown, Kwami Licorish and a man called Alex when they were sprayed.
The friends deny a claim that Collins overheard them talking about spiking drinks, causing Collins to insult them and take a bottle off them, triggering the row.
Mota told Wood Green Crown Court in London that it was “hard to hear” conversations in the club.
He denied a claim by George Carter-Stephenson QC, defending Collins, of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, that a group member said: “No you spike her, you do it.”
Carter-Stephenson said it had attracted Collins’s attention, and Collins told them: “You are d***heads, you are not spiking anyone.”
Brown then replied: “Don’t f ****** speak to me like that, how about we spike you, you mug,” the lawyer added, which Mota also denied.
He also said he did not see a small bottle being taken from Brown.
CCTV showed Mota trying to approach Collins but being intercepted by Phoenix, of Tottenham, London, the court was told.
Carter-Stephenson asked Mota about a chat between the friends that was caught on CCTV.
Mota denied the lawyer’s claim that he could not say what the conversation was about because “it will implicate you and your group in the possession of a caustic substance”.
The jury heard Mota had previously carried a lock knife on the street, and had been involved in a robbery.
Carter-Stephenson said: “You are not afraid to use violence if the need arises.” Mota replied: “I don’t need to use violence unless I am defending myself.”