Arthur Collins serving 20-year prison sentence for nightclub acid attack pleads guilty to hiding mobile phone inside crutch

He had the phone for private calls with his girlfriend and not 'for any sinister purpose,' lawyer says

Arthur Collins, 25, who is serving a 20-year jail term for carrying out an acid attack in a London nightclub, has pleaded guilty at Bromley Magistrates’ Court to hiding a mobile phone inside a crutch while in prison.

Collins injured 22 when he indiscriminately threw acid in the packed Mangle E8 nightclub in April.

Judge Noel Lucas QC described the attack as “deliberate and calculated” and ordered that Collins must serve at least two thirds of his sentence before he can be considered for parole.

Collins secreted the phone, two SIM cards and two USB sticks inside the medical aid while held on pre-trial remand at HMP Thameside in September.

He admitted one charge of possession of a prohibited item while in prison when he appeared via video link at Bromley Magistrates’ Court in London on Wednesday.

The court heard Collins, described previously as an “accomplished and calculating liar”, wanted to use the phone to make private calls to Ferne McCann, his ex-TOWIE star girlfriend.

She was pregnant with their child at the time the mobile was discovered in a search of his cell.

Collins appeared from the maximum security HMP Belmarsh in south-east London, where he is serving his sentence.

Wearing a prison-issue yellow and blue tracksuit he spoke only to confirm his identity.

The court heard the banned items were found when a prison officer removed the rubber stopper from the bottom of the crutch in his private shower during a cell search.

Collins had been using the aid after hurting his feet trying to evade police while on the run for the acid attack at Mangle E8 in Dalston, east London.

The court heard evidence was later found on the phone of calls and messages to family and friends.

Collins’ lawyer, Audrey Mogan, said he obtained the phone so he could make private calls to Miss McCann.

She said: “He did not have the phone for any sinister purpose.

“His partner at the time was heavily pregnant and gave birth the following November.

“He had this phone because he and his partner had been hounded by the media.

“He knows there was a phone in the cell but he knows the calls are recorded.

“Because of that he was afraid that information would get out to the media.”

She added that his acid attack trial and subsequent imprisonment had been a “difficult and trying time for him”.

District judge Robert Hunter committed Collins’ case to Woolwich Crown Court for sentencing on a date to be fixed.

Additional reporting by agencies