The family of a young boy, gravely injured after being thrown from the Tate Modern’s rooftop, has shared that he has encountered an unfortunate setback in his healing journey.
In 2019, the young French boy, who was only six at the time, was pushed off the tenth floor of the South London art museum by a troubled teenager, Jonty Bravery, who is now 23.
Despite suffering from severe, life-altering injuries such as brain hemorrhaging and multiple broken bones, he astonishingly survived the ordeal.
Bravery was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2020, with a minimum of 15 years, after admitting to attempted murder. He is currently detained at Broadmoor, a secure psychiatric facility in Berkshire.
Late last year, there was a glimmer of hope as the boy’s family reported that he had managed to relearn how to run, jump, and swim.
However, a recent update on GoFundMe disclosed that the family is experiencing a challenging period, just months following the boy’s surgery.
‘Our son had surgery in January, as we told you, but his rehabilitation is proving longer and more difficult than expected,’ the statement, translated from French, read. ‘He is still hospitalized in a rehabilitation center because he is still unable to walk.
‘He has only been able to have weekend leave for the past three weeks, in a wheelchair, which frustrates him greatly: it feels like a sad step backward.
The boy whom Jonty Bravery (pictured) threw from the top of the Tate Modern gallery in 2019 has taken a ‘sad step backward’ in his recovery
The Tate Modern in Southwark, South London, is pictured
‘He is eager to be able to walk again and resume a normal life outside the rehabilitation center, even if this normal life means spending half his time in treatment and only the other half at school.’
The family heartbreakingly added that the youngster had just settled into a new school before his surgery.
They added: ‘He is even more eager because we have finally found a school perfectly suited to his needs. The schedule takes into account his fatigue levels but still allows him to attend all his classes and his treatments.
‘We have therefore moved, and he was able to try out this new school before the surgery. In a very short time, he made new friends who have stayed in touch despite his extended absence.
‘They encourage him and eagerly await his return. It’s a warm welcome he hasn’t received at school in a long time.
‘We hope to be able to give you good news as soon as possible, even though we don’t know how much longer his hospitalisation will have to continue.
‘Our little knight, as courageous as ever, continues to fight and train, and we will remain by his side to support him no matter what.
‘Thank you for your support throughout these difficult times. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.’
The fundraiser dedicated to the boy’s recovery has raised more than £500,000 so far.
Bravery, who suffers with a personality disorder, is now 23 and five years into a life sentence.
He had been living in supported accommodation at the time of the attack, but was allowed to leave unsupervised on the day he targeted the French boy.
It was heard during his trial that the thug had ventured to Tate Modern intending to kill someone at random.
He told police he was motivated to attack the young boy because he had to prove a point ‘to every idiot’ who said he had no mental health problems, and asked if the incident was going to be on the news.
He said: ‘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 was handed a 16-week jail term this year after being found guilty of assaulting two staff members at Broadmoor Hospital, where he was being held.
Bravery appearing in court at the Old Bailey via videolink from Broadmoor Hospital for his sentence hearing in 2020 – he was jailed for at least 15 years
The hearing, held in January, heard how he attacked the women after attempting to jump from a window ledge to the floor of his room – which is sparsely furnished for his own protection, containing only a mattress on the floor and an adjoining bathroom.
He is required to be supervised by three members of staff at all times of the day and night, due to his mental health needs.
A serious case review published in 2021 found Bravery was not considered a risk to others at the time of the Tate incident, despite previously assaulting police and a restaurant worker, and hitting support staff with a brick.
It highlighted a series of violent incidents in the two years before he struck, as well as other examples of troubling behaviour including putting faeces in his mother’s make-up brushes and threatening to kill members of the public.
But it also concluded that Bravery’s violent behaviour had reduced at the time of the Tate Modern attack, while he was living in a bespoke placement with two-to-one care funded by Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council and the clinical commissioning group.
The report stated: ‘There was no recent evidence that he (Bravery) presented a risk to other children or adults unknown to him.
‘It was in this context that he was progressively given more freedoms, which saw him able to visit central London unaccompanied on the day of the incident.’
