A British teenager diagnosed with a mental health issue was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years to a life prison over attempted murder.
Judge Maura McGowan said that Jonty Bravery, 18, could spend his whole life in prison after throwing a six-year-old French boy from a viewing platform at the Tate Modern art gallery in London, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
The victim, whose identity was not divulged, fell five floors and was found on the building’s fifth-floor roof while his mother was looking for his son screaming.
“I cannot emphasise too clearly that this is not a 15-year sentence. The sentence is detention for life. The minimum term is 15 years,” the prosecutor said.
“Your release cannot be considered before then. You may never be released,” he was quoted as telling Bravery.
McGowan told the suspect that he would remain “a grave danger” to the public, adding that he almost killed the victim and that “the injuries you caused were horrific.”
The boy survived but is in a critical condition. He suffered a bleed to his brain and multiple fractured bones.
In a statement read out by the police, the victim’s family said he was able to eat again in January, could speak a little but remain very weak.
Years of physiotherapy will be required ahead of him.
“He is still in a wheelchair today, wears splints on his left arm and both his legs, and spends his days in a corset moulded to his waist sat in his wheelchair,” the statement said.
“He is in pain. There are no words to express what we are going through.”
Meanwhile, Bravery, who admitted the attack when he was 17, was said to have shown no remorse upon the reading of his sentence.
The suspect was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at the age of five and has a personality disorder. He had been detained in a high-security psychiatric unit since the attack.
The suspect admitted that he carried out his plan because he was not given proper treatment for his mental health.
“Yes, I am mad … It’s not my fault. It’s social services’ fault,” Bravery said.
