Tate attacker told carer of plan to kill

‘Alarmed’ worker felt compelled to record autistic teenager who later threw boy off balcony

THE teenager who threw a six-year-old boy from the 10th-floor viewing gallery of the Tate Modern told carers he wanted to push someone off a tall building months before the attack.

Jonty Bravery, 18, pleaded guilty to attempted murder after the attack in August last year that left the French youngster with a brain injury and unable to walk. Nearly a year before the attack, Bravery was recorded confiding in his carer that he wished to visit a tall London landmark and push someone off it. “In the next few months I’ve got it in my head I’ve got to kill somebody,” he said in the recording obtained by the BBC.

“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 100 feet,” he added.

The audio from the conversation was leaked by a care worker who claims he escalated his concerns about Bravery’s remarks to senior colleagues at Spencer & Arlington, which was responsible for the teenager’s care, but they failed to act. The former carer said he recorded his conversations with the autistic teenager after becoming alarmed by his remarks.

In a statement, Spencer & Arlington said there was “absolutely no evidence” that Bravery “may have told his carers of his plan”. It said there is no record of the disclosure in any report, care plan or review from managers, his cares, psychologists or health workers.

However, given the gravity of the claim it has reported it to the Care Quality Commission and the local authority. Bravery said being in prison would be preferable to being in council care. Hammersmith and Fulham council subcontracted his care to Spencer & Arlington. Before the attack, he lived in a flat in Northolt in west London where he received round the clock care.

The whistleblower claims Bravery was allowed to visit the Tate alone despite his concern. He said the teenager was typically monitored by two carers at all times but this changed in the spring of 2019. An independent serious case review has been opened.

Spencer & Arlington said: “We will continue to co-operate openly and with complete transparency with the serious case review and await its conclusions. We are confident the full facts will emerge from this process. We believe we have acted entirely properly in managing and reporting the provision of care for Jonty Bravery.

“However, with regards to the entirely speculative claim put to us that Jonty may have told carers of his plans, there is absolutely no evidence of this and nor is there any mention of this recorded in any care plan, case report or review from managers or from his carers, psychologists, or health workers reporting to us.”

Bravery’s victim had been visiting the gallery last August with his family, when he approached him and hurled him from the 10th storey viewing platform on to a roof below. Bravery is due to be sentenced this month.