IT V star’s runaway lover held over club acid attack
... as she reveals she is pregnant with his baby
arMED police have arrested the boyfriend of an ITV presenter over an acid attack at a nightclub, which injured 20.
arthur Collins, who is dating former reality TV star Ferne McCann, was held on suspicion of attempted murder after a police raid on saturday night.
It is understood Miss McCann, 26, told Collins shortly before the attack that she is pregnant with his child.
However, the showbusiness presenter for This Morning has tried to distance herself from him and urged him to contact police after he went on the run.
scotland Yard launched an international manhunt for Collins, 25, after acid was sprayed at the Mangle club in east London early on Easter Monday.
Twelve people needed hospital treatment and two – a man and woman both aged 22 – have been left blind in one eye.
Police raided Collins’s £1million home in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, last week to serve an arrest warrant on him but could not find him. Officers allegedly found guns and cannabis.
after six days on the run, armed officers found the scaffolder at a house in rushden, Northamptonshire, and took him to a London police station for questioning.
His arrest comes after another man was charged with seven counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, in relation to the same incident. andre Phoenix, 21, will appear at Thames magistrates’ court today.
Days before the attack Miss McCann had claimed she wanted to marry Collins. The former star of The Only Way Is Essex told OK! magazine: ‘We’ve spoken about our wedding.
‘We want to get married on the beach. I want it to be a party and a celebration. I know that seems a bit rushed but when you know, you know.’ The pair were in an on-off relationship
‘The pain is indescribable’
last summer after meeting through picture-sharing website Instagram, but the romance soon drew to a close.
Miss McCann then appeared on TV series Celebs Go Dating, but rekindled her relationship with Collins following the show. They were last month pictured on a romantic trip to Dubai.
It was reported yesterday that Miss McCann told Collins she was pregnant a few hours before the attack.
Friends of the presenter told a sunday newspaper she ‘has no future with someone who’d run away after something like this’. she was said to be ‘absolutely devastated’ and ‘under an incredible amount of stress’ but would ‘make the best possible life for her and the child’.
a source close to her said: ‘she is appalled by the injuries suffered in the attack and would not defend anyone capable of such a cowardly act.’
Miss McCann was not at the club when the acid attack took place. sophie Hall, 21, whose face was burned in the incident, said trouble broke out near her table at 1am, adding: ‘There was a plume of white smoke that smelled like petrol. It hit me and there was the most awful burning sensation.
‘My face felt as if it was on fire. The pain is indescribable… like your skin is eating itself.’
Detective Inspector Lee McCullough said: ‘This incident has caused suffering to a large group of people and left many others needing long-term treatment. The noxious substance has not yet been confirmed.’
Police said a woman, 33, and a man, 24, who were arrested in connection with the attack have been released.