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A man convicted of throwing a six-year-old boy off a balcony at the Tate Modern art gallery has now been found guilty of attacking two nurses.
Jonty Bravery, 24, was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 15 years, for throwing the boy from the London gallery’s 10th storey in 2019. The boy survived the fall but suffered a bleed on the brain and multiple broken bones. In October, his family said he had only recently been able to run, jump and swim again.
Bravery, who is autistic, is being held at Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital.
During a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday – which he chose not to attend – he was found guilty of assaulting nurses Linda McKinlay and Kate Mastalerz in September 2024.
The court heard he had kicked one nurse in the thigh and had “clawed” at the face of another, leaving her with blood dripping down her cheek.
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Bravery is being held at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire (Metropolitan Police)
Prosecutor Tom Heslop said Bravery has to be monitored by three members of staff “24 hours a day, seven days a week”, and is kept in a room with only a mattress in it.
“At around 9.30 at night, Mr Bravery asked to go to the toilet,” he said. Afterwards, Bravery tried to harm himself, Mr Heslop said. The nurses tried to restrain him, putting him on his mattress before turning him onto his back, Mr Heslop said.
Bravery “kicked out towards Ms Mastalerz”, hitting her in the thigh, the court heard. He also “clawed across” Ms McKinlay’s face, leaving her with blood dripping down her cheek, the prosecutor said.
Body-worn footage played to the court showed the nurses struggling on the floor with Bravery before other staff rush into the room to help.
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Broadmoor is a high-security psychiatric hospital (Getty)
A panicked staff member can be heard shouting: “Jesus Christ, do something.”
Ms McKinlay told the court that it was the first time she had been attacked at Broadmoor in her long career.
She said she had restrained Bravery because “we didn’t want him to hurt himself”. She continued: “He was screaming and shouting and kicking. We shouted for assistance.”
Asked about her injuries, the grandmother said: “He attacked my face, he was clawing at my face. My eye and my face were all scratched. In the aftermath I was very shaken.”
Ms McKinlay was taken to hospital for treatment.
Fellow nurse Ms Mastalerz said she started “shouting for help” when Bravery began kicking and scratching. She was left with a bruised thigh, and said it had been a “very stressful situation”.
Finding Bravery guilty of both charges, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said that Bravery “went too far”. He adjourned sentencing until 8 January, and asked for an update on Bravery’s current mental health condition.
In 2020, Bravery was jailed for another 14 weeks after admitting attacking Broadmoor Hospital staff. He punched nursing assistant Sarah Edwards in the head and face before pulling her hair, and bit Maxwell King, a rehabilitation therapist assistant, on his finger after he came to his colleague’s aid.