Man who threw six-year-old off Tate Modern balcony sentenced for attacking nurses at Broadmoor
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A man who threw a six-year-old boy off a balcony in the Tate Modern has been jailed at Westminster Magistrates’ Court for 16 weeks for attacking two nurses at Broadmoor.
Jonty Bravery was found guilty of assaulting nurses Linda McKinlay and Kate Mastalerz after he kicked one in the thigh and “clawed” at the face of another, leaving her with blood dripping down her cheek, at Broadmoor Hospital in September 2024.
The 24-year-old was previously handed a life sentence for hurling a French boy from TateModern’s 10th-storey balcony in 2019 and is now being held at Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital, in Berkshire.
Sentencing him on Thursday, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring, who found Bravery guilty of two counts of assault, said that those who “care” for Bravery were the targets of his assaults.
The defendant, who refused to appear at the hearing by video link, was sentenced to 16 weeks which will run concurrently with his 15-year minimum term. He has also been fined a total of £350.
The judge said it is “very unlikely” that Bravery will be deemed safe for release at the end of the 15-year term, “unless something significant changes”.
The nurses had been trying to stop Bravery, who has to be supervised by three members of staff at all times, from climbing a ledge to throw himself from it, a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court previously heard.
Speaking of the Broadmoor attack, prosecutor Tom Heslop told the court : “At around 9.30 at night, Mr Bravery asked to go to the toilet. After he used the bathroom, he attempted to climb a ledge and throw himself from it.”
The nurses tried to restrain him, putting him on his mattress before turning him on to his back, Mr Heslop said.
Bravery “kicked out towards Ms Mastalerz”, hitting her in the thigh and “clawed across” Ms McKinlay’s face, leaving her with blood dripping down her cheek, the court heard.
Body-worn footage played to the trial showed the nurses struggling on the floor with Bravery before other staff rushed in to the room to help.
Ms McKinlay, a grandmother, told the court it was the first time she had been attacked at Broadmoor in her long career.
In 2020, Bravery was jailed for another 14 weeks after admitting attacking Broadmoor Hospital staff. He had punched assistant Sarah Edwards in the head and face before pulling her hair. He then bit Maxwell King, a rehabilitation therapist assistant, on his finger when he came to help his colleague.
