Teenager, 18, who threw six-year-old boy from 100ft Tate Modern balcony is jailed for at least 15 years for attempted murder
- Jonty Bravery threw a six-year-old boy off the Tate Modern's viewing platform
- The French victim survived the 100ft fall, but suffered life-changing injuries
- Mrs Justice McGowan said Bravery 'may never be released' at sentencing
- She said Bravery's autism spectrum disorder (ASD) did not explain the attack
A mentally ill and violent teenager who threw a six-year-old boy from the Tate Modern viewing gantry has been jailed for at least 15 years for attempted murder.
Jonty Bravery, 18, was said to have had 'a big smile on his face' moments after hurling the young tourist over the railings.
Bravery executed his planned attack when he was allowed on an unsupervised trip to the art gallery.
The victim, a French boy, survived the 100ft fall, but suffered life-changing injuries - including a bleed on the brain and multiple broken bones - and remains in a wheelchair. He will require round-the-clock care support until at least 2022.
He was challenged by the victim's horrified father who asked: 'Are you mad?', to which he replied 'Yes, I'm mad'.
Sentencing Bravery, of Ealing in west London, Old Bailey judge Mrs Justice McGowan said: 'The fear he (the victim) must have experienced and the horror his parents felt are beyond imagination.
'You had intended to kill someone that day - you almost killed that six-year-old boy.'
She said Bravery's autism spectrum disorder (ASD) did not explain the attack, and acknowledged expert evidence he presents 'a grave and immediate risk to the public'.
The judge added: 'You will spend the greater part - if not all - of your life detained ... you may never be released.'
Jonty Bravery has been jailed for at least 15 years for attempted murder when he threw a six-year-old boy from the Tate Modern viewing gantry
Crews scramble to the Tate where a six-year-old French boy was hurled from the balcony
Well-built Bravery, who was wearing a white T-shirt and dark shorts, sat impassively with his legs crossed and occasionally placed his hands behind his head as he watched the 20-minute hearing via videolink from Broadmoor Hospital.
The court heard Bravery had been in supported accommodation under the care of Hammersmith and Fulham Social Services, with one-to-one supervision, and had a history of lashing out at staff.
Despite this, he was allowed to leave home, unsupervised, for up to four hours at a time.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer said there was evidence Bravery had long harboured his intent to seriously hurt or kill someone, with the teenager's admissions apparently caught on a 'shocking, prophetic' secret recording made by carers. The alarm was not raised with Bravery's parents.
It was on Sunday August 4, 2019 that Bravery - who has a mental disorder - left his accommodation and travelled to the Tate Modern in central London, spending at least 15 minutes stalking potential victims before 'scooping' a six-year-old boy up and over the railings as the youngster skipped slightly ahead of his family.
Emergency crews attending a scene at the Tate Modern art gallery on Augus 4, 2019
CCTV footage not shown in court captured the incident, then showed Bravery backing away from the railings.
The prosecutor said: 'He can be seen to be smiling, with his arms raised. At one point, he appears to shrug and laugh.'
Ms Heer told the court Bravery then told the boy's father: 'Yes I am mad.'
He was also heard to say, with a shrug: 'It's not my fault, it's social services' fault,' the lawyer said.
It later emerged that Bravery initially sought to carry out his grim attack at the Shard, Britain's tallest building, but baulked at the entry fee.
Following his arrest, Bravery was said to have asked police if he was going to be 'on the news'.
He said he had been 'seriously unhappy' recently and that he had to do anything he could to get out of his accommodation.
Was it not possible to hang him?
ReplyDeleteHow about changing the definition of the N word to anyone who shows no respect for human life?
ReplyDelete