‘Reality TV star’s ex wore Killer top to throw acid in club’
REALITY TV star Ferne McCann’s ex- boyfriend hurled acid across a dance floor while wearing a top saying ‘Killer’, a court heard.
Arthur Collins, 25, is accused of injuring 17 revellers at a packed East London nightclub over the Easter weekend after a row over spiked drinks.
He admits throwing the liquid in one man’s face and across the crowd but claims he did not know it was dangerous.
But a jury was told Collins had acid in his car a week earlier and even warned relatives to be careful of the ‘little hand wash’. Wood Green Crown Court was told the bust-up with a group of men in the VIP area of Hackney’s Mangle nightclub ‘came out of nowhere’.
Just before 1am, Collins sprayed acid into one man’s face and threw the liquid twice more as he was pulled away, prosecutors said. Revellers suffered injuries from ‘the very serious to the very minor’. Two people were partially blinded. Collins was caught on CCTV in the melee wearing a top with ‘Killer’ printed on the chest. He is no longer in a relationship with McCann – who spent three years on The Only Way Is Essex until last year – but she is pregnant with his child.
Prosecutor Luke Ponte said: ‘It is not clear how this trouble started but it is very clear how it ended, suddenly and decisively, and not at all in keeping with what had gone before.’
The jury was told that Collins armed himself as he expected trouble and was ‘ assisted’ by his friend Andre Phoenix, 21.
Collins believed three men were planning to spike a girl’s drink in the club after overhearing them, his barrister said.
Phoenix was arrested four days later. Collins was traced to a house in Rushden, Northamptonshire. As police hunted him, a mobile telephone was seized from his sister, the jury heard. It contained the message: ‘Tell mum to mind that little hand wash in my car acid.’
Collins, of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, and Phoenix, of Tottenham, deny five counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and 11 of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The trial continues.