REVIEW CALLED INTO THE CARE OF TATE MODERN ATTACKER

INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION URGED AS TO WHY BRAVERY WAS ALLOWED OUT ALONE

THERE are calls for an independent review to look into what went wrong after a teenager in the care of a west London council threw a child over the 10th floor balcony at Tate Modern.

Jonty Bravery was jailed for at least 15 years for attempted murder by an Old Bailey judge last week.

His six-year-old victim, on holiday at the time with his family from France, suffered a fractured spine and bleed to the brain and endured life-changing injuries after plunging 100 metres in the attack in August 2018.

He will need round the clock care at least until 2022, the court was told.

Bravery has autism and a personality disorder and at the time of the attack was in the care of a company called Spencer & Arlington, contracted by Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

He was living in Northolt and was supposed to have round-the-clock supervision. His desire to harm someone had already been apparently captured on a video recording made by carers, but he was allowed out alone despite this.

In February this year, BBC News obtained a recording of Bravery telling his care workers about a plan to kill someone and go to jail.

His care provider, Spencer & Arlington, at the time said it had “no knowledge or records of the disclosure”.

In the autumn of 2018, a worker called Olly (not his real name) recorded Bravery talking to him and another care worker about his plan to commit murder.

“In the next few months I’ve got it in my head I’ve got to kill somebody,” Bravery said in the recording, obtained by a joint investigation with the Daily Mail.

He also tells his care workers he wants to go into central London and visit a tall landmark to push somebody off it.

“It could be the Shard, it could be anything just as long as it’s a high thing and we can go up and visit it and then push somebody off it and I know for a fact they’ll die from falling from a hundred feet,” Bravery said in the recording.

He explains he is fed up with his situation and wants to be sent to prison.

As reported by BBC News, Olly said when Bravery went to Spencer & Arlington in the summer of 2018, all trips out were supervised by two care workers at all times and had to be risk assessed, but he claims that in the spring of 2019 the regime changed and Jonty was allowed to go out alone.

Andrew Brown, who is the leader of the opposition at Hammersmith & Fulham Council said: “This is an indescribably tragic event for the family.

“It would appear that there needs to be some serious lessons learned. I would like to see the inquiry to be carried out as independently as possible – probably by another borough or an independent association.”

It was reported that Bravery had warned he had thoughts about pushing someone from a building a year before the attack.

His care providers had no record of the warning, however.

The Old Bailey was told Bravery had a history of lashing out but was allowed to leave home unsupervised for four hours.

The Press Association said Hammersmith & Fulham Council spent £12,400 on legal costs at four hearings discussing Bravery’s anonymity.

He was 17 at the time of the attack, which he pleaded guilty to, but the council fought to preserve his anonymity when he reached 18, freedom of information data showed.

A council spokesman said: “A serious case review is under way. We are co-operating fully and will learn from the findings.”

The report is due to be completed by the autumn.

The spokesman added: “We wish to extend our sincere sympathies to the young child and his family after the terrible event at Tate Modern in August 2019.”

Spencer & Arlington never denied Bravery was allowed out unsupervised, either in general or during his visit to the Tate, but told BBC News it would be “inappropriate to make detailed comment” ahead of the serious case review.

Jonty Bravery