The teenager who threw a six-year-old boy from the 10th floor of the Tate Modern art gallery has been found guilty of assaulting two women at Broadmoor Hospital.
Jonty Bravery, who is now 23, refused to appear via video link at court today, where he was accused of hitting out at Linda McKinlay and Kate Mastalerz at the maximum security hospital in Berkshire on September 30 last year.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring found him guilty in his absence after agreeing to proceed with the hour-long trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, concluding Bravery ‘deliberately absented himself’ from the case.
He will be sentenced in January, though he is already serving a life term with a minimum of 15 years before he can be considered for release over the Tate Modern incident.
Outlining the case today, prosecutor Tom Heslop said Bravery was in his room at Broadmoor which contains only a mattress on the floor and an adjoining bathroom.
He is also required to be supervised by three members of staff at all times of the day and night, due to his mental health needs.
Mr Heslop said Bravery asked to use the toilet and, upon returning to his bedroom, attempted to climb out of the window before being restrained by Ms McKinlay and Ms Mastalerz.
He said: ‘He finally calmed down. Ms Mastalerz took his other arm in the restraint.
‘At this point Mr Bravery kicked out towards Ms Mastalerz in the groin area, and then turned his attention to Ms McKinlay to her leg and clawed across her face with his fingernails.’
The nurses described how Bravery – who was only wearing boxer shorts at the time – repeatedly struck out at them after saying he wanted to harm himself.
Ms McKinlay told the court: ‘He was just kicking, he managed to get his legs up, he attacked my face by clawing at my face.
‘My face and my eye was all scratched and bleeding.
‘At the time it was just a case of dealing with the situation but afterwards I was very shaky and couldn’t believe it happened.
‘In all my years of being in Broadmoor I had never been attacked before so it was a real shock.
‘(I was) very, very shook up, upset, could not believe it.’
The experienced nurse was taken to hospital and discharged the following morning.
She said she was now ‘very, very cautious’ at work as a result.
‘(I’m) just nervous sometimes when I’m approaching an incident,’ she said.
‘My main thing is my family and grandkids seeing me like that.’
Her colleague Ms Mastalerz described how she could see ‘droplets of blood’ on Ms McKinlay’s face before Bravery then attacked her, she said.
‘He started kicking us from both sides and he made contact with me,’ she told the court.
She said the incident had more of an impact on her mentally rather than physically.
She said: ‘It was a very stressful situation for myself and for my colleague and for Jonty, and it was not very pleasant.’
The judge said the staff members had used reasonable force to restrain Bravery who ‘went too far’ and was ‘under no physical threat at the time’.
He will be sentenced on January 8.
Bravery was in Broadmoor after admitting attempted murder when he threw the French tourist 100ft (30m) from the viewing platform of the London attraction in front of horrified onlookers in August 2019.
The boy suffered life-changing injuries, including a bleed to the brain, fractures to his spine and broken arms and legs, and endured years of therapy, although his family said he has recently learned to run, swim and jump again.
Bravery, who has autism and a personality disorder, was 17 at the time and has been detained ever since.
In January 2020, Bravery punched a female nursing assistant in the head and face then bit a rehabilitation therapist assistant on his finger when he tried to help his colleague, and was jailed for another 14 weeks in custody after admitting two assaults.
