Enquiry Begins Into Council Care of Teen Who Pushed Child from Tate Balcony


Recording emerges of Jonty Bravery talking about throwing someone from building


Jonty Bravery

A probe into Hammersmith and Fulham council’s care of the man with autism who pushed a six-year-old boy from Tate Modern leaving him with horrific injuries, has got underway.

The West London council was legally responsible for 18-year-old Jonty Bravery who will be sentenced later this month (17 February) after admitting attempted murder.

He threw the boy from a tenth floor viewing gallery in August. The boy plunged five stories and suffered horrific injuries and spent several weeks in hospital in the UK.

The child is still unable to walk and is still getting hospital treatment back home in France after suffering serious injuries. He faces a long spell of rehabilitation.

It emerged that nearly a year before the horrific incident, Jonty Bravery said he was thinking about throwing someone off a building, such as the Shard, and going to prison.

A recording of him talking about his feelings has been passed to the BBC and Daily Mail. He had round-the-clock care and had been living at a flat in Northolt in Ealing.

The company providing care denies ever hearing recording.

The serious case review will publish its findings in September.

After the incident Hammersmith and Fulham council sent a report to the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.

A council spokesman said: “Our sympathies go out to the child and his family following what happened at Tate Modern. An independent serious case review is now underway. It will look at what happened and the role played by all the different agencies involved.”

As is normal with serious case reviews the local authority will not carry out the review.

Sir Stephen Bubb who wrote the report into a care scandal at the Winterbourne View care home told the Today programme on Radio 4: “This review ought to be independent.

He added: “ It needs to look at the whole history of what support there was.”

Julia Gregory - Local Democracy Reporter

February 7, 2020