Teen who threw boy, 6, from Tate Modern balcony 'wanted to be on the news'

Jonty Bravery pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to attempted murder over the incident at the Tate Modern
PA
Tim Baker7 December 2019
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The teenager who threw a six-year-old boy from the tenth floor of the Tate Modern told police he "wanted to be on the news".

Jonty Bravery, 18, was arrested shortly after he seized his victim by the limbs and threw him off the viewing platform on August 4.

As horrified onlookers tried to help a the six-year-old boy, the teenager made a confession: “I think I’ve murdered someone.”

He pleaded guilty to attempted murder on Thursday after the French boy was left with brain injuries, broken arms and legs and a fractured spine.

When he was arrested, the then-17-year-old said he hoped the attack would be widely reported in the media – not through any apparent desire for infamy, but in an effort to highlight his treatment for autism.

"I wanted to be on the news, who I am and why I did it, so when it is official no-one can say anything else," Bravery, who also has obsessive compulsive disorder and is thought to have a personality disorder, told police afterwards.

Lawyers for Bravery and Hammersmith and Fulham council - the local authority responsible for his supervision at the time - tried to suppress his name being reported.

But it emerged Bravery began telling others at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institute who he was and what he had done.

The Tate Modern gallery in London
AFP via Getty Images

The full details of the case have yet to come to court, including the level of the local authority's involvement with Bravery.

But he told police in interview he wanted to highlight that he should have been "treated in a different way".

He said he heard voices say he had to hurt or kill people, and told officers he had to prove a point "to every idiot" who said he had no mental health problems.

Emergency crews at the scene of the incident in August
PA

In court on Friday, Bravery appeared to roll his eyes as his care was briefly mentioned.

His father Piers Bravery has previously tweeted Health Secretary Matt Hancock, writing: "You are a public servant so do your job and stop more children dying and being abused in these repugnant institutions."

The tweet has since been deleted.

Bravery, from Ealing in west London, appeared via video link on Friday, wearing a dark blue jumper and sporting an unkempt beard.

He could be seen closing his eyes at various stages during the hearing and appeared to be speaking under his breath at times.

He will be sentenced on February 17.

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