Machibet AffiliateTeen, 18, who laughed as he threw boy, 6, from Tate gallery and told victim's dad 'I am mad' is caged for 15 years | The Sun - Machibet777 Login

A TEEN who laughed as he hurled a six-year-old boy from the tenth floor of the Tate Modern "to be on the news" has today been jailed for 15 years.

Jonty Bravery, 18, left the youngster with a broken back, fractures to his limbs and a bleed on the brain after throwing him from a viewing platform last summer.

Jonty Bravery, 18, is being sentenced for attempted murderCredit: AFP

He chillingly just shrugged and laughed after the boy plummeted head first to the ground.

Bravery - then aged 17 - told the boy's dad, who believed the horror attack was a "joke" until he saw his son's mangled body below: "Yes, I am mad."

He later told a staff member: "I think I've murdered someone, I've just thrown someone off the balcony."

Bravery was today jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years in prison after previously being found guilty of attempted murder.

The teen sat with his legs crossed as the judge warned he "may never be released" from prison.

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."

Bravery, who has been in Broadmoor Hospital since last October, is on the autistic spectrum and is likely to have a personality disorder.

The court was previously told that when he was arrested, Bravery said he had travelled to the London gallery with the intention of hurting someone so he could be on the TV news that evening.

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."

The teen also laughed at harrowing CCTV of the attack and said he felt "on top of the world".

Bravery told officers he heard voices telling him he had to hurt or kill people and wanted to prove a point "to every idiot" who said he didn't have mental health issues.

HORROR ATTACK

The teen, who was under supervision but allowed out alone for four-hour periods, had first travelled to the Shard and tried to gain access to the viewing platform.

But when he was told he didn't have enough money to visit the top of the 1,016ft building, he asked where the "next highest building was".

Bravery then made his way to the Tate Modern and began behaving in an "unusual way".

Witnesses speaking at the time said he had followed families around with his hands behind his back before pouncing on the young boy as his mum's back was turned.

The teen "scooped" the lad, who was visiting the UK from France, up in his arms and chucked him over the railing "without any hesitation".

Chilling timeline of attack

August 4, 2019, 12.16pm - Jonty Bravery, a then-17-year-old autistic boy living in supported accommodation, leaves his home in Ealing, west London, to buy an Oyster card at a shop on Church Road, Northolt.

12.23pm - He arrives at Northolt Underground station and takes the Tube to London Bridge station.

1.10pm - Bravery arrives at London Bridge station, on the South Bank, and makes his way the short distance to the Shard.

Once there, he asks a member of staff how much it costs to enter but does not have enough money. CCTV footage then shows him walking away before turning back to ask for directions elsewhere.

2.16pm - Bravery arrives at the Tate Modern on foot, speaks to a member of staff and is seen pointing upwards. He then takes the lift to the 10th floor viewing balcony in the visitor attraction's Blavatnik Building.

2.30pm - CCTV shows Bravery looking over the railings close to where a six-year-old French boy - who cannot be named because of his age - is later hurled. Witnesses describe Bravery looking "relaxed" and smiling at their children. They move away.

2.32pm - The victim and his parents arrive on the viewing tower where Bravery has been waiting. The boy skips ahead of his parents briefly, allowing Bravery to scoop him up and throw him over the edge.

Bravery then moves away and can be seen smiling, with his arms raised. The victim's parents panic - the father challenges Bravery while the mother attempts to climb over the barriers to her son, 100ft (30m) below, before being stopped by witnesses.

Members of the public detain Bravery, remarking he seems "calm" and "lacking emotion". He later is heard saying: "It's not my fault, it's social services' fault."

2.46pm - Bravery is arrested. He asks: "Is this going to be on the news?"

CCTV captured Bravery with a "big smile on his face" as the boy's mum desperately tried to scramble over the railing to help her son.

When confronted by horrified witnesses, he "sniggered" and blamed his heartless actions on social services.

The court heard how Bravery had researched the easiest way to kill someone in the hope he would be banged up for life.

He narrowed it down to three possibilities - strangling a woman or a child, drowning a child or throwing someone off a tall building.

On the day of the horror, Bravery searched "what are the chances of death if someone is pushed into the River Thames?"

He also visited a web page entitled "How to get away with rape" and searched: "Are you guaranteed to escape prison if you have autism?"

A psychiatric report found his "callousness and the striking lack of emotional empathy" was more typically found in "psychopathy" than autism.

At the time of the incident, he was a "looked-after child" under the care of Hammersmith and Fulham Social Services.

He had a grim history of attacking care workers and fellow patients and was accused of a string of attacks in Brighton.

But police had released him pending further investigation - with the teen able to leave his sheltered housing alone despite his violent history.

FAMILY'S AGONY

The boy was forced to spend two months in intensive care and left unable to speak or eat after the horror attack on August 4.

He was "fortunate not to die" in the attempted killing, which was described as a "whisper away from a murder".

The court was told he only survived the fall because he struck side of the gallery on the way down.

The boy is now unable to trust anyone and "would like to slap" Bravery for what he did, his family previously told the court.

They added in a previous statement: "Words cannot express the horror and fear his actions have brought up on us and our son who now, six months on (at the time of the victim impact statement), is wondering why he's in hospital.

"How can one explain to a child that someone deliberately tried to kill him?

"How can he now ever trust mankind?

"How can he not see in every stranger a potential 'villain' who could cause him immense pain and suffering?"

The anguished parents revealed their son dubbed their son their “little knight” as they revealed previously he could only smile to communicate.

And they told the court they had not left their son's side for fear of losing him following the "unspeakable" act.

The boy can now stand with a walker and can take a few steps with help from a physiotherapist.

But he still struggles to eat and will need 'round-the-clock care for at least two more years.

Writing for on a GoFundMe page, which has so far raised £211,785 for the boy's treatment, his parents said in May: "Our child has only his two boot-shaped splints now, and a splint on his left arm that he wears only at night. He still has to spend his day in a shape moulded seating fixed on his wheelchair.

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