Ferne McCann’s boyfriend, Arthur Collins, has been arrested in connection with an “acid attack” in a London nightclub six days ago, The Sun reports.
Collins, 25, was hunted by police after being charged over the acid attack at the Mangle club in Hackney, which left two blind in one eye and 20 injured.
Ferne McCann’s boyfriend Arthur Collins arrested on suspicion of attempted murder https://t.co/8LbpKVaD6d pic.twitter.com/EoiZJHDWN9
— The Sun (@TheSun) April 23, 2017
He was apprehended and arrested by armed policemen in Rusden in Northamptonshire on Saturday night following a dramatic encounter. In footage obtained by The Sun , Collins was tasered by a squad of 30 armed policemen before he was escorted out of the compound.
Arthur Collins has been taken to a London police station, said a Met spokesman.
Not long after Collins was named one of the suspects over the acid attack in the nightclub, Ferne McCann, a former TOWIE star, made a plea for Collins to cooperate fully with the police and to go to a police station immediately.
“Arthur Collins, 25, was arrested at an address in Rushden, Northants on Saturday night, 22 April by officers from the Met’s Specialist Crime & Operations and Hackney Borough, with the assistance of armed officers from the East Midlands Operational Support Service and Northamptonshire Police,” the Met spokesperson said.
“Collins has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He will be taken into custody at a London police station in due course.”
The London acid attack left a 22-year-old woman blinded in the left eye on Monday, April 17. The detectives revealed on Friday that a second victim has also been blinded in one eye.
Twenty people were injured after a “noxious substance” was hurled into a crowd at the night club.
Arthur has been charged with 14 counts of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and one count of throwing corrosive fluid on a person with intent to do grievous harm.
Another man, Andre Phoenix, 21, has been charged with seven counts of grievous bodily harm. He was arrested on Friday. Another man, 24, was arrested on Friday but was released from custody.
Ferne McCann pregnant with Arthur Collins’s baby
Ferne McCann, 26, told Arthur Collins she was pregnant with his baby before the attack, as reported by Mirror.
A TOWIE star who wishes anonymity revealed that some close friends of McCann are worried about her.
“We were weary of Ferne rekindling her romance with Arthur. Not many people like him and believe he’s not the right man for Ferne. Everyone just wants her to be happy – and that may not be with Arthur. She’s under an immense amount of stress now – the last couple of days have not been easy for her. It’s good to see that Ferne is distancing herself from him. We’re all friends with her and hope she’s alright.”
A representative for McCann told Mirror said that the star is “grateful” for the support she’s been receiving since last week and will do “all she can to have a happy and healthy child” as a single parent.
Who is Arthur Collins?
Before the acid attack, Arthur Collins seemed to have a bright future ahead with Ferne McCann as her love interest, as reported by Telegraph . Last week the pair was featured in the latest issue of OK! magazine , in which the two revealed they were already talking about getting married soon.
Wonder if @OK_Magazine regret having an ‘on the run’ on their front page? #awkward #fernemccann #arthurcollins pic.twitter.com/2lV0nAdYEF
— John James (@JohnJamesNI) April 19, 2017
“We’ve spoken about our wedding,” McCann said. “We want to get married on a beach. I want it to be a party and a celebration. I want to be in the best shape of my life and I’d love to wear a backless wedding dress. I’ve been told that I have a great back.”
Collins and McCann announced their romance via social media while enjoying a vacation in Marbella. The two split last summer during a holiday in Ibiza, but reunited again in March.
Arthur Collins, a scaffolder and businessman from Hertfordshire, had been targeted by controversy after hooking up with Ferne. He bragged about using drugs in one of his past Facebook posts, although it’s not clear whether it was just a glib attempt at humor.
In another post, Arthur has posted videos of himself posing with balloons of “laughing gas” inside his car.
In the OK! interview, Ferne defended Collins, reasoning that those posts were long ago.
“He’s a very good boy. Those Facebook posts were nine years ago,” she said. “We all did silly things when we were teenagers.”
[Featured Image by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images]