Arthur Collins Pic: Metropolitan police

Arthur Collins has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the acid attack on a Dalston nightclub in April.

Collins, 25, the ex-boyfriend of reality TV star Ferne McCann, was handed the prison term on Tuesday, after a judge described his actions as “a deliberate and calculated attack” when he hurled acid around the Mangle E8 nightclub.

Sixteen people suffered chemical burn injuries in the incident and three people were temporarily blinded – one of whom still suffers from blurred vision in one eye – of which 14 were the subject of charges.

Collins, the father of Ms McCann’s baby daughter Sunday, had told his trial he did not know the bottle contained acid, believing it to contain a liquid date rape drug, which he had snatched from two men after overhearing them planning to spike a girl’s drink.

But the jury at London’s Wood Green Crown Court convicted him of five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent and nine counts of actual bodily harm last month.

Judge Noel Lucas ordered that as well as his 20-year prison term, Collins, of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, will additionally be subject to five further years on extended licence.

Twenty-two people reported injuries to the police after the acid attack at the club on April 17, which was packed with bank holiday revellers.

Collins told his trial he had been out celebrating the news of Ms McCann’s pregnancy, which they had announced to her family the previous day.

At his sentencing hearing, the court heard Collins had threatened a similar attack on a former partner’s mother.

He received a caution for racially aggravated harassment for ringing the woman in the middle of the night and threatening her with an acid attack and to have her raped.

He has six previous convictions including threatening words, possession of cocaine, drunk driving and assault.

He was still subject to a suspended sentence for punching a man at a nightclub when he carried out the attack at Mangle.