Arthur Collins has been jailed for 20 years for squirting acid in a packed London Fields nightclub and injuring more than 20 people.

The 25-year-old ex-boyfriend of a Towie celeb was locked up at Wood Green Crown Court yesterday after being found guilty last month.

During his five-week trial the court heard how he got into a fight with a group of men at Mangle E8 on a Bank Holiday night out in April.

He then grabbed a bottle from the back pocket of another man and threw it at one of the men he was arguing with, before squirting it twice more after the victim fell to the floor.

Clubbers said they saw “steam” rising above them and a chemical stench filling the air and making them choke.

Collins stayed in the club and was seen laughing with a friend despite injured partygoers flocking to the exit around him.

Jurors heard how Collins had sent a text to his sister the week before the attack saying: “mind that little hand wash in my car ACID.”

He claimed in court the message referred to a shampoo containing amino acid and coconut oil that he was worried about his nieces finding and biting it.

He said that he kept it in his car to hide the fact that he had a hair transplant from his girlfriend - now the mother of his child.

Collins was arrested in Northamptonshire on Saturday, April 22, after being on the run for almost a week.

Sixteen people suffered serious burns in the attack. Judge Noel Lucas said Collins was an “accomplished and calculated liar”.

He told him: “This was a despicable act. You knew precisely what strong acid would do to human skin.

“Having thrown the acid over the club you slunk away and hid in the rear and pretended to be nothing to do with the mayhem you had caused.

“In my judgement it was deliberate and calculated and you were intent on causing really serious harm to your victims.”

He was found guilty of five counts of wounding with intent and nine counts of ABH.

Hackney borough commander, Det Ch Supt Simon Laurence, said: “This was a barbaric and cowardly act.

“I would personally like to thank the victims for their strength and bravery; in being forced by Collins to give evidence during the trial, they have had to re-live that night. I can only hope that their continuing strength will enable them to face the rest of their lives in a normal as possible way.”