LONDON (Reuters) – The French boy who was thrown from the roof of London’s Tate Gallery more than a year ago can now stand unaided though he had yet to regain his balance, his parents said in a statement.
The unnamed boy, who was visiting Britain with his family, was thrown from a 10th-floor viewing platform by teenager Jonty Bravery on August 4 last year, falling 100 feet (30 metres) onto another roof.
His mother was heard by witnesses screaming: “Where’s my son? Where’s my son?”
The boy, aged just six at the time of the attack, endured months of fear and rehabilitation.
“He can at last stand on his legs without any help or support,” his parents said. “Still, and only a few moments, because he still has not regained his balance in walking, but we are so happy to see him like that!”
“Regarding food, he now eats almost alone (after everything has been cut out and prepared for him) and, in a suitable glass, he begins to drink slightly thickened liquids! It’s a very important progress.”
Bravery, who was 17 at the time of the incident, was jailed for at least 15 years in June after pleading guilty to attempted murder.
He told police he had planned to hurt someone at the museum to be on television. He had researched how to kill people on the internet the previous day, and before the incident he had asked a member of the public the location of a tall building.
Bravery, who has autistic spectrum disorder and a personality disorder, is now being held at the high security Broadmoor Hospital.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Michael Holden)
