Acid Attack Victim Reveals She Needed Valium To Face Arthur Collins In Court

20 December 2017, 10:10

One of the victims of Arthur Collins' nightclub acid attack has told LBC that she needed prescription drugs to avoid having a panic attack when she faced him in court.

Collins, a former boyfriend of reality star Ferne McCann, was jailed for 20 years yesterday after being found guilty of the attack in the Mangle E8 nightclub in Hackney.

Three of his victims - Phoebe Georgiou, Lauren Trent, and Sophie Hall - came back to court to give moving accounts of how the incident has scarred them for life.

And speaking to Ian Collins, Ms Georgiou said the attack had serious psychological effects, as well as the physical scarring.

She said: "I've been in therapy weekly to try to help me get through the post-traumatic stress and the anxiety.

"Even today, to get myself to the court, I had to be prescribed medication to be able to sit in the court because it was the first time seeing him.

"So that was to suppress my panic attacks in court."

When asked if facing Collins was difficult, Ms Georgiou responded: "Yes, but I felt I had to read my impact statement out for closure."