Acid attacker jailed for 20 years

Man who threw acid at a London nightclub injuring more than 20 people including two Australian sisters jailed for 20 years.

Arthur Collins was found guilty of five counts of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Picture: AFP.

A man who threw acid at a crowded London nightclub injuring more than 20 people including two Australian sisters, has been found guilty and sentenced to 20 years jail with another five years on licence.

Arthur Collins, the 25 year old former boyfriend of The Only Way Is Essex soapie star Ferne McCann, was yesterday found guilty of five counts of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and nine counts of assault occasioning bodily harm.

Australian model Isobella Fraser, 22, was at The Mangle nightclub with her sister Prue when Collins sprayed the acid after an altercation with a group of men just before 1am on April 17 this year.

Isobella Fraser told the Wood Green Crown court that she felt something on her arm and was in great pain.

“My whole dress was wet and I could smell gas, it was making me cough.

I thought someone had scratched my back but when I looked at my dress it was melted to my back and there was a massive hole in it.

“I thought we were getting gassed. I thought it was a terrorist attack or something. I was freaking out.”

Prue Fraser, 21 also believed a bomb had gone off because her arm was in so much pain.

Some of the other victims suffered second and third degree burns requiring skin grafts with many victims suffering permanent scarring.

During the five week trial the jury was shown CCTV footage of Collins grabbing a bottle containing the acid from the back pocket of another man and throwing the substance towards the face of one of the men he was arguing with. Collins had claimed he believed the liquid was a date rape drug. But police prosecutors produced a text message Collins sent six days prior to the attack to his sister in which he warned: “Mind that little hand wash in my car ACID’’.

Police said Collins squirted the contents of the bottle three times with no regard for other partygoers standing in proximity. Victims described steam and a chemical smell which made them choke.

Hackney Borough commander, Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Laurence, said Collins had carried out a ‘’barbaric and cowardly act’’.

”Collins went to the nightclub that night with a bottle of a noxious substance with the intent to use it to inflict serious harm. He indiscriminately and recklessly sprayed the substance in a crowded place, knowing full well the danger this would pose to a large number of people. This was a barbaric and cowardly act.’’

He said Collins stayed in the nightclub seemingly without care for his victims.

The tough sentence sends a strong signal to other attackers who have used acid in a spate of motorcycle robberies and gang attacks in the past year throughout London.

In October the Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced a ban on selling corrosive substances to anyone under the age of 18. Victims have suffered life changing and severe facial injuries requiring multiple reconstructive surgeries.