Belfast Telegraph

Claire Hanna on DUP and SF’s nationalis­m

- BY CATHERINE WYLIE

A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy allegedly thrown from a viewing platform at the Tate Modern art gallery sustained injuries including a fractured spine, a court heard.

A 17-year-old male charged with the attempted murder of the child was remanded at Bromley Youth Court after a short hearing yesterday.

The court heard the child sustained a bleed on the brain and fractures to his spine, legs and arms in the alleged incident.

The youngster, a French national, was airlifted to hospital after he was found on a fifthfloor roof at the gallery on Sunday afternoon.

The child, who is in a stable but critical condition, had plummeted five storeys after allegedly being thrown from the 10th-floor viewing platform.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wore a grey jumper and sported stubble at the hearing. He spoke to confirm his name, address, date of birth and nationalit­y as British.

The court heard the six-yearold was at the gallery with his parents and they were on the viewing platform “looking over the side and enjoying the view”.

The child is said to have walked a couple of feet away from his parents and was allegedly picked up and thrown over the edge in an action that was “carried out extremely swiftly and in one movement”, the court heard. The suspect was apprehende­d by members of the public after the incident. The teen was remanded to youth detention accommodat­ion until a hearing at the Old Bailey tomorrow.

Scotland Yard has said there is no link between the suspect and the victim. Officers were called to the gallery at around 2.40pm and the child was treated at the scene before being flown to hospital by London’s Air Ambulance.

Olga Malehevska was on the viewing platform with her fouryear-old son when the alleged incident took place and described what happened as “absolutely terrifying”. She said she saw a woman crying, shaking and shouting “oh my son, my son”.

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