- A 6 year old French child had been pushed from a balcony.
- He suffered from multiple fractures and a brain hemorrhage.
- The hearing opened before the criminal court in London.
It was August 4, 2019. A 6-year-old child was thrown from the tenth floor of the London Tate Modern Museum . Nearly a year later, the complete recovery of the French child remains uncertain, the British prosecution said on Thursday before the young man tried for the facts was sentenced.
The hearing at the end of which Jonty Bravery, 17 years old at the time of the drama and now 18 years old, must know his sentence opened before the criminal court of the Old Bailey in London. The accused, who had pleaded guilty in December and suffers from psychological problems, appeared by videoconference wearing a t-shirt and shorts from the hospital.
A fall of about thirty meters
Pushed from the tenth floor of the museum of modern art, which he visited with his family while staying in London, the then six-year-old child fell on a roof, thirty meters below. He suffered a brain hemorrhage and multiple fractures, in the spine, legs and arms.
"It is not known whether he will fully recover," said the prosecutor during the hearing. The victim was able to find the use of speech at the end of the year, and continues to progress, his parents said on a website which has raised more than 230,000 euros to treat the child. "We do not understand everything he says, especially when he is tired, but he expresses himself more and more," they explained in their last message.
"I think I killed someone"
The suspect was arrested after being surrounded by members of the public pending the arrival of the police. The prosecutor returned to the facts, citing the statements of witnesses struck by the accused's "big smile" or his "calm" after his gesture, in the "chaos" that reigned then. According to information gathered during the investigation, the suspect explained that he heard voices telling him to injure or kill people. "I think I killed someone, I just threw him from the balcony," he said immediately after his gesture to a museum employee.
To investigators, he said he wanted "to be on the news." Less than three months before the facts, the father of the accused had, in a series of messages on social networks deleted since, raised the problems of autism and treatment. He had arrested Health Minister Matt Hancock on Twitter, explaining that he had to "do (his) work" and "prevent more children from dying and being mistreated in these repugnant institutions".
He thought he would take action
In the fall of 2018, Jonty Bravery had told caregivers that he planned to kill someone, according to statements recorded and relayed in February by the BBC and the Daily Mail .
"In the coming months, I have in my mind that I have to kill someone," he said in the recording. He said he wanted to go to a large building in central London to push someone.
The Tate Modern , a museum of modern art on the banks of the Thames, is one of the UK's most visited tourist spots. The observation platform is located in an extension added in 2016 to the building, a former power plant.
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- United Kingdom
- Accident
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